Unless a Seed Falls...

Now tell me...if this isn't a miracle, then what is?

I almost couldn't believe my eyes once I got started harvesting things from our garden last week. How incredibly, richly blessed we are! Food is something I so easily take for granted. It's a normal part(y!) of everyday life, isn't it?

It sincerely amazes me how such a variety of delicious, fresh, nutritious, and colorful fruits, vegetables and flowers can be brought forth from the earth from a single seed.

We all know that a seed needs sun and water in order to grow. But there's another important factor that we often forget...

"Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies..."

(John 12:24)

Without death, there is no fruit. Unless it "falls to the ground and dies, it remains a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds." Paul commented on the same principle in 1 Corinthians 15:36 - "What you sow does not come to life unless it dies."

What if a seed had a mind of its own, and could choose it's own glory instead of bringing forth fruit? What if it could decide to become 'big and rich and successful'? It would, literally, be full of itself! Unless a seed bears fruit, it's useless.

Image from foodmate.com

Big seeds are impressive, but big fruit is what counts. The picture above shows the harvest of American pumpkin grower Ron Wallace's world record pumpkin that weighed 2,009 lbs. 

A British seed company bought an inch-long seed from the pumpkin, paying £170 on an online auction, about 400 times higher than what is normally paid by specialist growers for giant pumpkin seeds.

The only reason such enormous fruit is possible is because a seed died in order to give life. 

Sounds familiar, doesn't it?

"Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me..." is the invitation from our Savior. Give up your rights, surrender your dreams, and bear the fruit of the Spirit in your life. By refusing to build our own kingdom, selfish and limited, we participate in the building of the Kingdom of God, which is "RIGHTEOUSNESS, PEACE, and JOY in the Holy Spirit" (Romans 14:17). Now that is something worth dying for.

Death hurts. But we are called to "offer our bodies as living sacrifices" (Romans 12:1), meaning we always have the choice of crawling off the altar. Taking the easy way out means choosing to live out of our own strength, our own striving, and seeing limited fruit. Surrendering, on the other hand, means participating in God's marvelous, loving plan and fulfilling the "good works He has prepared in advance for us to do" (Ephesians 2:10).

This spiritual principle of a seed falling to the ground and dying gives us hope, since we can be assured that even the things that appear to be "dying" in our lives can be used of God to bring fruit, and can raise a harvest far bigger than anything we could ever do on our own. 

 

"Now this is to My Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples..." (John 15:8).