Look at these seeds. They will become mustard, barley, corn, wild rice, rice, red rice, wheat, lentils. And can multiply themselves indefinitely if their harvests are replanted.
Wouldn’t think that just looking at them, would you? They look hard and inert, as lifeless as pebbles.
* * *
I was thinking about an experience in my life into which I sunk much money, and much energy and effort and worry.
And what became of it?
Apparently nothing!
“Wasted” effort, wasted time, wasted energy.
Was it really?
Or was all I learned and did and experienced in the course of this experience, a seed which may bear fruit later.
· * *
Rejoice always. In everything give things. Praise the LORD at all times (Ps 34:1)
We can thank God for everything, even experiences which seems flops, wasted, failures, because you see everything that has happened to us is just a seed.
It might look lifeless, hard, dry, with no trace of softness, or green, or fruit, or flowers, or vegetables, or millions of apples or blackberries.
But give it to God, put it in his hands, this seed of sad, wasted, apparently fruitless experience. Ask him to help it germinate
A 2000 year old Judean date palm seed, carbon-14 dated, recovered from excavations at Herod the Great’s Palace in Masada, Israel was germinated in 2005. A carbon-14-dated 1,300-year-old sacred lotus recovered from a dry lakebed in northeastern China was geminated in 1995. (Wikipedia)
* * *
We can ask God to bless our experiences of the past—the false starts, the abandoned projects, the failed relationships, the years we sweated over projects which failed, all the sub-optimal years. We can consider these things—the blurred years, the treasure hunts in which we never found the treasure– not as wasted, but as seeds, which can still yield a beautiful harvest. We can ask God to bless and fructify our past, as well as our futures.
For what is our past?
Seeds. Just seeds.
Place them in the hands of the Lord of the Harvest.
Take them, Lord, bless them, germinate them, and multiply them.
Amen.
More from my site
John and Carol Arnott of "The Toronto Blessing," come to Oxford
Walking Away from the Dreaming Spires; Walking Away from Joy 
No man is a hero to his valet–except Jesus
Chronos and Kairos–The Mysterious Right Time
“Thin Places,” Where the Boundaries between the Spiritual and Physical Worlds are Almost Transparent
Ouch! I am sorry.
That was a mistake I could so easily have made. So it was a seeding event–teaching you to be wise as a serpent, as well as gentle as a dove.
God bless,
Anita
It's a good thought but beware of taking it to the next stage. I toyed with the idea that our sorrows were seed corn to be planted. A friend half across the world became homeless and before the money I sent arrived took her own life. The previous day she had gone to a church asking them to pray with her but had been turned away; I was furious.
The following Sunday there was a thin, homeless lad standing in the rain outside the church, he asked me to pray with him so of course I stayed behind after the service and invited him to dinner. He took more time than me to get to our house as he had a bike.
It took me a while to work out how the church collection had been nicked as we left together.
I had gone through the door before him and it was a Yale lock…..