“A handful of pine-seed will cover mountains with the green majesty of forests. I too will set my face to the wind and throw my handful of seed on high.”
– Fiona Macleod (Leaves of Gold, pg. 39)
I come from an area of the country where mountainsides filled with trees is a familiar sight. It is a view I have appreciated all my life. The beauty and majesty is especially grand at the prime of fall colors, as if God has taken His full palette of colors to paint a glorious scene declaring His glory. While I have beheld such beautiful scenes more times than I could count, I do not ever recall considering in those moments the reality that every tree in the panorama began with a single seed.
Jesus knew something about scattering seed. Apparently his audience did also. One of the most familiar of Jesus’ parables was about seed and sowing (see Mark 4). There are two prominent features of the parable that come to mind. First, the seed fell on different kinds of ground, which in turn means that some seed would succeed and some would not. Second, even being aware of the various soil conditions, the sower was quite willing to scatter the seed freely, as if trusting that the Lord of the Harvest would reap the appointed abundance. The willingness to scatter seed is essential to the harvest.
Imagine standing in the presence of God and receiving a grand vision of mountainsides covered in trees. God says, “This is what I want to do, but I need people to scatter the seeds. Otherwise the trees will never come to be. It will take many sowers, and I want you to be one. Are you willing to go scatter seed?” How would you respond? I suspect that most of us, given a vision of the end result, would not hesitate to say to God, “Give me some seed!”
Throughout time, God has been creating “people landscapes” of such beauty. For about two thousand years, these landscapes together have been known as the Church. Some hillsides have been around for a long time, with new generations of young trees growing to take the place of those who have completed their course of life. In some places, entire new hillsides are being formed as waves of freshly planted seed are starting to come forth. No mountainside of faith is exactly like any other, as each is a unique combination of individual trees, sprouting branches that bear fruit for their Maker. Each scene is beautiful in its own way, as each declares the glory of the Lord.
Today, you will go out with seed in your heart and your hands. That seed is the love of God, the hope of Christ, the blessing of forgiveness and new beginnings. Scatter the seed. Scatter it freely. Trust that the Lord of the Harvest is working on His next expression of redemptive beauty, and by His grace might use the seed you plant.
See you along the Winding Path.
The Winding Path 