This morning I was excited to see our Lilies of the Vally poking up through the leaves. You might wonder why I would get excited over leaves rolled up so tightly that they just look like little shoots. The reason is because I know their potential. I know before to long there will be beautiful dark green leaves along the north side of our house and then pretty and dainty white flowers as well. I am looking forward to smelling them, taking pictures of them and picking them to use in arrangements.
I also get excited thinking about my box of seeds. The seeds in themselves are nothing special but I know the potential that they contain! I am looking forward to many meals of juicy and sweet corn on the cob, crisp cucumbers, beautiful flowers, ripe tomatoes and much more.Gardening reminds me of the verse in John 12:24. "Truly, Truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit."
But What is seeds had choice like we do? I can imagine a seed saying "But I don't want to die! It is dark, cold and wet down in the earth. I would much rather stay in my warm and dry seed packet with the pretty picture on front. I am comfortable here, don't make me move! " And we think "how absurd!" That is ridiculous, seeds are for planting, not for staying warm and dry in their seed packet. If they do that after a few years they won't even have any potential left and will only be fit for being thrown away.
The deal is, we know what is best for a seed, how they can reach their full potential. But how about us? That verse above isn't really preaching to the seeds or even telling the farmer what do do with his grains of wheat. It was talking about Jesus and how He had to die for us and it is also talking to us about a choice that we need to make in our life. We are asked to die so that we can reach our full potential. We are asked this not by somebody who doesn't know anything but rather by God, the one who created us and knows what our full potential is!
The following verses also give us something to think about John 12: 25 & 26 say: "He who loves his life loses it; and he who hates his life in this world shall keep it to life eternal. If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me ; and where I am there shall My servant also be; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him." We aren't to be so in love with our earthly life and fleshly desires (like a seed wanting to stay in the packet) that we will be willing to give up the hope of eternal life!
Well then how can we die? How can we have this new life of bearing much fruit? Romans 6:4&5 says: "Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection. " It really isn't very complicated, it requires a burial too, just like the seed (and like Jesus) but this one is in water. And then we can say like Paul in Galatians 2:20 "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me." !
