The Promise in the Seed

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11 And God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” And it was so. … And God saw that it was good. Gen 1:11-12b ESV

A Promised Plan

The usual trend is that as we step into each new day, week, month even a new year we carry an instinctive impulse to both navigate our next steps while reflecting on what was - most often through a negative lens. Sometimes, it can become increasingly difficult to imagine there is a plan let alone a promised Divine plan.

As I journey with others, one of the passages I reference the most comes from the promise of God to Jeremiah, who is in a place of uncertainty about his next steps. Jeremiah offers God a list of excuses citing why he just cannot do what God is asking. But God allays every excuse in one promise - I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11). What a great promise!

The Imaginal seed

Genesis tells us that each seed replicates according to its kind. This ability for the seed to regenerate and transform into a plant, a fruit tree or vegetation is due to the existence of what botanist call, the imaginal cell. Every imaginal cell not only holds the wisdom of what each seed will become but also the instructions concerning the timing, when to hibernate, reproduce, change and grow. Could God have been explaining the principal of a Divine imaginal cell to Jeremiah? The book of Ephesians (3:20) suggests that God is able to do immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us a reminder that not even our imagination can match the Divine imaginal seed. Will we trust God?

The farmer sleeps

Faith is trusting what we cannot see, abiding in the mystery of the promises of God. The parable of the farmer and his seed reminds us that. 27 Day and night, as he works and as he sleeps, the seeds sprout and climb out into the light, even though he doesn’t understand how it works. 28 It’s as though the soil itself produced the grain somehow—from a sprouted stalk to ripened fruit. 29 But however it happens, when he sees that the grain has grown and ripened, he gets his sickle and begins to cut it because the harvest has come. (Mark 4:27-28). The seed knows what to do, be patient and wait for the moment of harvest.

Ponderings 

• Can we trust that just as the acorn contains the blueprint for the oak tree, we too are filled with all that God has intended for us
• How do we uncover our own imaginal seeds of promise? God’s plan for us?
• What are some of the ways we can begin to develop the patience of the farmer?

Prayer

Ephesians 3:19-21

I pray that I may know the love that surpasses my knowledge—that I may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. I lift my voice in prayer to the one who is able to do immeasurably more than all we could ever ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever!

Amen.