EMERGE! ‘Bloom Where You Are Planted’
A Season to Plant: THE SEED
March 4th, 2022
Luke 8:15, ‘The seed that fell into good, fertile soil represents those lovers of truth who hear it deep within their hearts. They respond by clinging to the Word, keeping it clear as they endure all things in faith. This is the seed that will one day bear much fruit in their lives.’ (TPT)
Each Spring, it seems as if something begins to awaken inside of us after a lengthy winter’s nap. We begin to imagine and prepare for the season ahead; one of planting, nurturing, tending, sowing, and ultimately, reaping or harvesting. We wander through nurseries and meander around Pinterest and get ideas of what and where we’d like to plant certain flowers and when to cultivate plots set aside with rich, fertile soil for vegetable gardens, and we await the return of perennials we planted in seasons past.
Perhaps like me, and after the second or third row of digging the suggested little holes several inches deep, in which you drop one tiny seed separated by several inches of space, you find yourself growing lazy. Soon you are dipping a finger in the moist dirt and pressing a handful of little seeds; ‘That should be good enough,’ you mutter, as you empty the contents of the paper package, seeds and all into the breeze. Maybe they’ll bloom where they are planted, you giggle. That’s what you did. If you’re anything like me, that is. Soon enough, a spackle of unknown green sprigs poke through the earth and you question if it needs weeded or by chance it might be one of those stray seeds you sent into the wind. You choose to let it stay, anxious to see what might emerge.
But maybe you are the person who is very intentional, dressing a parcel of space with neat, even and straight rows. A tiny placard announces what is expected to arrive in a short period of time and tending, sunshine and water. Nary a weed pops up for more than a trifle of a moment before you notice and pluck it straight from the sludge it sprang from. Every last measure has been taken to assure a bountiful harvest eventually and you know assuredly things will bloom where they have been planted.
Are you patient as you await the appearance of what you scatter or sow? Do you plant it and ultimately walk away until one day you realize tiny little shoots are peeking through the dirt? Or do you watch the dirt and imagine you see the crumbles move, parting to make way for something that is trying desperately to emerge? I wonder if you’ve ever given up on waiting for something to germinate. If you’ve ever decided perhaps your soil wasn’t rich or fertile enough, or maybe you didn’t plant your seeds as you were instructed? Did an exclamation of joy fall from your mouth, when, just as you gave up waiting, something tiny and green, a small little twig thrust forth. That’s what you did. If you’re anything like me, that is.
In either circumstance, we both held in our hands a seed. Inside that seed is hidden a seed’s DNA which determines what will emerge from the seed we planted. Whether haphazardly or cautiously, it matters not. What matters is what that seed is intended to be, it’s DNA.
Just like you and me. We can be tall or short, sculpted or squatty, brainy or athletic, intro- or extra-vert, haphazard or cautious. It does not matter how we were grown but what we produce when we are grown, our DNA, and especially our spiritual DNA. The seed within each of us matters, no matter what you have been told.
Mark 4:26-29, ‘Jesus also told them this parable: “God’s kingdom realm is like someone spreading seed on the ground. He goes to bed and gets up, day after day, and the seed sprouts and grows tall, though he knows not how. All by itself it sprouts, and the soil produces a crop; first the green stem, then the head on the stalk, and then the fully developed grain in the head. Then, when the grain is ripe, he immediately puts the sickle to the grain, because harvest time has come.”’ (TPT)
One of the greatest things you and I can ever do is ‘BLOOM where we are PLANTED’. Beautiful things grow from the fertile soil of a willing heart.
