Flowers of all the tomorrows are in the seeds of today

I can feel it. I can sense the changes in the air already and it's only August 13th.

Life is all about change. Life is all about preparing for change, too.

Every year Marianne gathers seeds from some of the flowers growing in our yard. It is indeed a clear sign of change here. I was surprised to find that she has already begun.

Many years ago I read a book by Dr. Robert H. Schuller. One line in it has stayed with me all these years. The simplicity of the thought and the depth and reality of it gave me the hope I needed at that time in my life.






He said, "All the flowers of all the tomorrows are in the seeds of today."

How incredible is that?

When I hold a seed I can see far beyond today. I can see all the tomorrows, all the years ahead of me when my children's children and their children will romp and play in fields created by the very same God I worship today. Perhaps even from the same seed I now hold in my hand.

There on the counter in my kitchen was a single seed already chosen by my wife to be planted next spring.

I am saddened by the fact that I can feel the seasonal change of this year, yet I hold the very seed of next spring. Oh, yes and many springs to come.

When she came home, I mentioned that I had discovered it earlier in the day. She picked it up, held it in her hand and examined it closely.

"I don't think that this is a good one. It's all pitted and oddly shaped," she said.

Without hesitation I said something that even surprised me.

"You don't make that decision, God does."

I stunned myself. I hurried to get a pen and tablet I keep near my chair in the living room so that I could write it down.

In God's Garden, He decides what will grow and what will not. He plants the seeds of faith, hope, love, joy, and happiness in our lives. Who are we to say that this seed will grow and that will not?

In God's Garden, He plants the seed in your mind that in the early stages appears as a foolish dream, a lofty hope of success and happiness. That seed is His plan for you.

Like the mustard seed...Matthew 13:32 "Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches."

Only God decides which seeds will grow and which will wither or be eaten by the birds. Either way, each and every seed serves a purpose.

Go and find a seed. Hold it in your hand. Close your eyes and create a vision of that seed growing. Play along with the vision and see the potential, the plan within. Fast forward seeing the flowers grow, die and grow again season after season through all the tomorrows it holds inside.

You are a seed in God's plan for the world. You may appear to yourself and others as "pitted, dried up,and useless." But God is the Great Sower of seeds.

He holds you in His hand today and sees all of your tomorrows. You may be "the largest of the garden plants" or the smallest of the flowers.

"You don't make that decision, God does."

But He relies on you to water, fertilize and care for what He has created.

Right now God is holding you in His hand just like you held the seed. He closes his eyes and sees a vision of hope, success, happiness and as he fast forwards He can see the impact you will make on all the tomorrows you hold inside.

The difference here is, God has given us the gift of choice. You are His seed and the gardener. How you grow depends on the choices you make, the care you give and your faith in His plan for you.

God won't make those decisions, you will.

~ Bob Perks ~