Life In A Seed?
By Lorinda Hall
It is easy to become fascinated and awed by what we see in nature. Such intricacy, such careful balance, so many amazing things occurring around us all the time. And we are totally preoccupied with it. Physics, biology, chemistry, plants, animals, planets, weather … how many books covering these topics fill our library shelves?
The trouble is that sometimes we get so focused on these natural things, we don’t realise that they are just a reflection of something far greater. They are all signposts pointing to something richer, more eternal and more substantial than perhaps we can imagine with our human minds. They point to a loving creator, to a fellowship of love shared between the Trinity and to a quality of life that will last for an eternity.
Let us take one simple example we are all familiar with. The seed. Perhaps as a child you were given some seed and some wet cotton wool. Each day you would watch expectantly for signs of a green shoot which would then grow bigger and perhaps produce more seeds of its own. It almost seemed like magic! As we get older do we start to overlook the absolute miracle of life brought forth from a tiny seed?
In high school science we learn that a seed is made up of three parts; an embryo, a supply of nutrients for the embryo, and a protective coat. Put that seed on a rock or on a shelf at home and nothing will happen. The seed will remain dormant and nothing will become of the potential that is inside it. Bury it in some rich, moist earth however, and the story is very different. A transformation begins to occur. The seed ceases to be a seed and something new springs forth.
The Bible says that Jesus was like a seed. He came to earth as a vessel carrying within Himself God’s life and a blueprint of every individual who would ever be.1 When He died and was buried He was like a seed being buried in the ground. When He rose from the dead He was like a new plant springing out of the earth producing many new seeds. God’s life was multiplied through Jesus, ‘the seed’, and made available so that all who believe might be sons and daughters of God, living by the same capacity that Jesus did.
So how does this become reality in our lives? Once again the principle of the natural seed helps us to understand a spiritual one.
Jesus told His disciples that the Word of God was like seed being thrown out onto different types of ground; hard, stony, thorny and good.2 He explained that the ground is our hearts, and that there are things that need to be softened or removed so that the seed of God’s life can be received and grow unhindered.
God has a unique and specific ‘seed’ word which He sends to each of us. He wants to tell us about the ‘blueprint’ He has designed for us in Jesus. We may ‘hear’ Him speak to us through the Bible, or through a preacher or through a Christian friend. This personal message to us is a seed, containing an ‘embryo’ of God’s plan for us and with a supply of ‘nutrients’ adequate to see it come to pass.
Through baptism, and throughout our Christian walk, we are able to participate with Jesus in His death, burial and resurrection. As we do this, the seed of God’s life we have received is able to spring up and multiply in our lives. Walking with Him and His people, continuing to hear and receive His ‘seed’ word, we will see change in our lives and His plan for us flourish like a mighty tree, bringing life, shelter and rest to those around us.
Romans 6:4: Therefore we were buried with Him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father; even so we also should walk in newness of life.
Colossians 2:9-10 For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And you are complete in Him…
2 Luke 8:5-21, vs11 …And the parable is this: The seed is the Word of God…
