our packet of seeds

Of the two of us, Keith is the gardener.  And I am thankful.  Gardening (weeding) was a form of punishment when I was growing up and I still look at it that way!  But I appreciate the beauty of God's earth and all that comes from the careful stewardship of it.

This morning during my quiet time with the Lord tears began streaming down my face as I prayed about our work here in the Bahamas.  In just a few weeks we will mark our 1 year anniversary of moving to Nassau.  And yet, most of the time I look around at the landscape of our life and think, "Are we really doing any good here?"  The needs on this island are so great, and we are so small.  Just 5 people.  One small church in the midst of over a thousand on this island.  Is our being here really making any difference?  The tears were coming because I long to see God work through us in obvious, measurable ways, but reality seems far from that.  So much effort, so much investment has gone into our being here...all the giving of God's people, all the time spent training and preparing....I could go on and on.  Is it all really worth it?

 

"A packet of seeds Lord...that's all we are.  A packet of seeds in a Lancaster County-sized field here.  What we need is an industrial sized spreader and bushels of seed."  These were some of my thoughts and cries to the Lord.  And in that moment it seemed as if the Lord replied, "Yes, a packet of seeds.  Go out and see what a packet of seeds has turned into." 







About 4-6 weeks ago, Keith and the girls bought a packet of zinnia seeds and planted them on the edge of our little landscape in front of the house.  We've been watching them carefully over the last weeks, noting their growth with hopeful expectation.  On Sunday we noted that they looked almost ready to burst into blossom.  So when I felt the Lord remind me of what was growing just outside my front door....from a packet of seeds...I got right up and went outside.  Blooms! 







There they were.  And I would wager that later today, when the sun hits them, there will be dozens of blooms.  The Lord dealt gently with my heart, reminding me that although most of the people on this island will never see these zinnias in bloom, they are here, on the edge of my home's landscape, in one corner, making it beautiful and displaying God's glory in their zinnia-way.

The zinnias at the front of our landscape create a little border

Just a packet of seeds.  But one that until it was bought, ripped open, put into the ground, covered, watered, and nursed by the sun, would never have grown in this yard.  Which is more beautiful?  A a packet of seeds sitting on the shelf in the garden store, or one spilled down into the earth, planted and blooming?  That's easy, right?  And so we are here.  Our "packet of seeds" has been bought and torn open, and sewn into the ground here.  God will produce blossoms.  He promises.  "Truly, truly I tell you.  Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone, but if it dies, it bears much fruit."  John 12:24.