Before sun and moon and stars, before there was light—there were seeds, just waiting, waiting full of the power of potential.
As soon as there was land separate from the waters, there were plants with seed just waiting for light, just waiting for sunshine and the pull of the moon—there was the potential of reproducing every tree and plant God made on the face of the earth. Before there were fish or birds or animals, before there was hunger, there was food—plants to bear flowers with seeds and fruit with seeds. Seeds everywhere just waiting. Before there was sunshine or dew, before there was seasons or cycles, there were seeds, just waiting.
And the seeds had intention: to make more and more of whatever held the seed, perpetrating ad Infinitum, a lush harvest to feed everything that was yet to be created. Before the need, the seed. Before the hunger, the food, Before the privation, the provision.
photo by Angela Kellogg
How like God to think ahead, to transcend the logic of all lesser creatures, to supply the needs of His creation before he made the life that would need it. No wonder the metaphor of seeds is sprinkled throughout the sacred scriptures.
The poetic prophet Isaiah gives purpose to the rain and snow, that purpose being to come down as precipitation to make the seeds do what they were made to do, to bud and flourish so that they would “yield seed for the sower and bread for the eater.” Only then could the moisture return to the clouds. That moisture (rain and snow) is a metaphor (says Isaiah) for the life-giving word that goes out from the mouth of God and does not return until it accomplishes the purpose for which it was sent.
The result? We who receive the water of that word will...
...go out with joy and be led forth in peace
The mountains and the hills will burst forth
in singing before you, and the trees of the field
will clap their hands!
Not only is the refreshing rain that opens the seed the word of God, in Matthew the seed itself is the living word, and the tiny seed a metaphor for faith that can move mountains. In II Corinthians the seed is used to represent generosity in caring for those in need, seeds that keep on reproducing. I Peter talks about the difference between the seed from human reproduction and the seed that is eternal, the imperishable seed that makes us a part of the family of God. This seed of God is Jesus who took on the body of the seed casing (human form), a human body, so that He could go all the way to dying like a seed must do, so that the living, eternal seed could burst out, alive and green!
The Provision that preceded all things calls to the eternity in each of us, making it possible for us to bloom, “not of perishable seed but imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.” (I Peter 1:25)
This is the season of seeds. Every grain of wheat, every kernel of corn, every soybean, every finished marigold or zinnia, every cattail by every pond, every apple, pear, and peach—all the fruit of every harvest is provision for new life. Every seed surrenders to the burial of decay so that in the darkness of soil, its casing will give way to the promise of provision.
Let the abundance of seeds keep us from dark thoughts, fear, and despair. God makes provisions before we are even aware of our need.
