It’s Spring here in the Northern Hemisphere! All sorts of things are shaking their leaves and flowers and spreading out to grow. It’s also the time for planting either seeds or purchased plants from a nursery.
For those who have the patience to start seeds and then move them outside, this is the point where you wonder why you needed six packages of tomato seeds.
It’s interesting to think about the planting process. Whether seeds or plants, we dig a hole, drop whichever in, maybe put a little grow stuff in, maybe a bit of water and then fill in the hole. We water when we remember, and watch the seed/plant grow. Honestly it’s a bit more dramatic when you plant seeds but the end result is the same.
But that’s it. The Bible tells us “this is what the Kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how.” (Mark 4:26-27) We don’t know how this happens, yet it does. We don’t even really think about the “how”.
Mark goes on to say, “All by itself the soil produces grain – first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head.” (Mark 4:28) The growth from a seed to a stalk to a head of grain to full kernels is beyond our control. No matter how hard we might try, we can’t control or manage this ourselves.
When we are admonished in Scripture to produce fruit, we often grunt and strain to do so, hurrying here, rushing there, doing. But what we are consistently being told is that by ourselves we simply cannot produce fruit or even grow. It’s not up to us. All that is up to us is to be open and available to God. He will produce the growth. He will produce the fruit. We are known by the fruit God produces in us. Not by the fruit we try to produce.
If we let Him, He will cause growth and produce fruit in us. Abide in Him. Let Him.
Just Sayin' 