Seedlings

We are starting seedlings for our garden this year.

We planted them today.

Tiny pots, all lined up in a row.

Planting has me thinking about faith. To drop a tiny seed in some dirt, to nurture it with sunlight and water, all requires a good measure of faith. Faith that something will sprout from nothing, and then faith that it will grow. Faith that it will survive being transplanted, and then that it will survive the elements outside. Faith that it will bloom, bud, flower, vine, and ultimately bear the produce that will nurture us. Faith that something bigger is coming that what we can see today.

All that, from those tiny pots, all lined up in a row.

Today, on day one, the seeds sit in the dark, damp soil. And we wait. And we tend with water and light. And we wait for the invisible magic to manifest into the natural world. 

These things have me thinking about the Parable of the Mustard Seed. 

He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.” -Matthew 13:31-32

The Parable of the Mustard seed gives me hope because it means that my small, bumbling efforts toward the Kingdom of God can develop into something much larger and sturdier than what I started with. This is good, especially because my flesh and the enemy want me to believe that nothing is ever enough. They seek to keep me in a perpetual state of anxiety over what I’m not doing and whether I’m doing enough. 

It always feels like my efforts should be more spectacular and in-your-face. More public, more impactful. But in truth, my efforts are small and daily and mostly hidden from view. I make effort, and then I hope with the blowing of the wind that my effort falls on good soil where it can grow. 

It’s that age old question that hits all of us at one point or another: does anything I do matter?

Jesus says yes. Tiny things have great potential to grow into something wonderful, like a bountiful garden in July that began in April as quiet cups of dirt and seed in my basement. That’s how things work under God’s reign and rule.

So, I’ll keep praying with my boys every day before they go to school. 

I’ll keep hugging them at night.

I’ll keep trying to build them up.

I’ll keep listening when they need to talk.

I’ll keep cooking those family meals every night. 

I’ll keep trying to be a good friend, a good daughter, a good wife. 

And though these efforts are not snazzy or spectacular, still they are my offering, the seed which I am hoping lands on good soil and grows. I’ll keep sowing my tiny seeds in faith that God is making something beautiful out of this life and these people. 

I’ll keep praying and loving, however imperfectly. And that’s another thing about growing seeds in faith. We aren’t experts. We probably buried some seeds too deep and others not deep enough. The soil is likely imperfect and who knows if we watered enough on day one. But even so, with all our imperfect efforts, we will still see the seeds sprout in due time.

So don’t be discouraged. Keep watching those tiny pots, all lined up in a row.