To Life

To say that I don’t have a green thumb is a gross understatement. Two years ago, I tried again. I bought three robust Bradley tomato plants (the kind my grandfather always grew with great success).  Four months of growth produced plants over five feet tall…but only 1 tomato. One. And that one was carried off by a bird after I picked it and laid it down while I returned the water hose to its proper place.

My biggest attempt at pretending to be a farmer was in 1981. I paid a guy to plow about half an acre behind our home off Ozburn Road in Arrington, Tennessee.  I had grand plans to grow all sorts of things. On the specially designated Spring Saturday, I went to downtown Nashville and bought my seeds at, what was then, a farmers’ go-to place…Acme Seed Company. (It’s now a restaurant…so goes Nashville…go figure.)

I bought all kinds of seeds, but I was particularly drawn, for some unknown reason, to squash seeds. There are so many varieties of squash, including Yellow, Zucchini, Spaghetti, Butternut, and Royal Acorn. I bought them all. 

I sowed a lot of seeds that spring…lettuce, corn, watermelon, cantaloupe, cucumber, radish, cabbage, and five varieties of squash. (Seeds amaze me. Little dry pods, easily taken for dead, hold incredible possibilities of life…in dormancy.) All five varieties of squash seeds looked similar. And, I somehow got them all mixed up. 

Nothing really grew in that garden except a few cucumbers, huge weeds … and lots of squash. Even though I got the squash seeds mixed up, it seems that each one knew what it was supposed to be. Amazingly, Butternut squash seeds became Butternut squash. Royal Acorn squash seeds became Royal Acorn squash. (I proudly gave away squash that summer…even the Zucchini that I let grow much too big…but I rarely mentioned the much larger group of vegetables that totally failed.)

Somehow our God put inside those little dormant squash seeds the ability to come alive and grow to be squash. He put inside them the sensors that recognized when the amount of moisture, sunshine, warmth, and minerals were just right for the dormancy to become life and send forth … always in the right direction … sprouts that evidenced and expanded that life.  And the life He gave each seed was exactly what was needed for it to become the variety of squash it was meant to be. God’s gift of life…in each seed.

I think we are quite like

the dormant, dry squash seeds. 

In our natural state, 

at a crossroads.

Life, or death.

Without the intervention of God…

without a savior…

we are dead in the guilt of our sin. 

But then, there…is…God, 

drawing us home…

offering us life, 

His eternal life.

Scripture often repeats this truth.

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans‬ ‭6‬:‭23‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

“And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sin.” Ephesians‬ ‭2‬:‭1‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

God will give you life. And not just any life, but the life you were created for…the life you were meant to have. Not in a physical sense, where all is candy and roses…or cinnamon rolls…but in the way that satisfies the deep longing of your soul. 

There is a famous quote, from the 16th century, attributed to Blaise Pascal…

“There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of each man which cannot be satisfied by any created thing, but only by God the Creator, made known through Jesus Christ.”

― Blaise Pascal

God offers Life that fills the vacuum.  As Jesus described it: 

“…I have come that men may have life, and may have it in all its fullness.” John 10:10 NEB

Royal Acorn Squash seeds can become Royal Acorn Squash. 

Are you still dormant?  Dead, when life is available? You are being called to life…in all its fullness. It is a gift from God, only needing to be accepted.

So, on my mission to define “what I’m trying to say”, I have added to my incomplete statement… 

GOD CALLS US HOME, TO LIFE…

The sentence that embodies “what I’m trying to say” is almost complete. One more thought will finish it, I think.

Thank you for reading and sharing. If you missed the reason I’m condensing into one sentence “what I’m trying to say” you can find it by clicking:

https://www.skipburke.com/what-are-you-trying-to-say/