SEEDS OF CHANGE

I have a small raised bed garden.  It's 8' by 8' and crammed overly full of vegetable plants.  Every year I marvel that I can put seeds in the ground, brush a bit of dirt over them and magically plants appear a week or two later.  From one day to the next you can visibly see growth.  Suddenly growth produces a small blossom.  Then, a small tomato, cucumber, zucchini, pepper, radish, green bean.  Every year I find myself amazed, excited, in wonder and awed by the process of growth - the journey of that seed to harvest and my table.  I perused my small garden this morning and saw the swiss chard was ready to be cut.  It had finally grown enough that it reached maturation - its final destiny to be eaten and enjoyed by me.  I thought too about what God must feel.  Is it similar to what I do with seeds and the process, the miracle, the mystery, the joy of seeing growth and value come from virtually nothing into something? What appears dead and lifeless, a seed, is actually alive and waiting for the right growing conditions.  I am a seed to God.  I hold forth possibility, delight to Him, the promise of change and growth but only under the right conditions.  I need a soft heart allowing my life to be used, changed and grown by God to create produce.  He sees it over and over again in all of His creation - humans included.  He sees it just like I see the garden every spring.  Just like me, God gets excited at my growth, my change, my journey to maturity.  I think He delights in my seed of humanity.