A LESSON FROM MY PLANTS

            I love my flowers!  I have several pots of marigolds and several basil plants outside our house. It impresses me is how  they sacrifice everything to produce more plants.  My marigolds get old and the green fades to brown, but the orange blossoms continue to bloom all over the plant.  Any remaining growth goes into new buds for more flowers, and more seeds for more plants.

            The same thing happens with my basil plants.  We love to use the leaves to flavor our food.  Like the marigolds, they are more interested in growing flowers for seeds than producing more or larger leaves.  I continually keep pinching off the blossoms so growth goes into the basil leaves. If I miss a day, there is a new blossom starting.  They just won’t give up no matter what I do.

            The lessons are clear – our first priority is to ‘go to seed.’ Planting new “Christian seeds” for the Kingdom.  So much of my energy goes into growing my own leaves and plant and not into reproducing other believers.  My houseplants will give up everything and totally sacrifice themselves just to seed new plants.  That’s such a needed lesson in priorities for us! 

            If plants don’t produce seed, the species will die in a year.  If we don’t see the need to tell others about Jesus, the Christian message of hope could close in one generation.  God has no other plan for plants to continue, nor does He have another plan for His hope to spread.  It’s up to us.

2 Corinthians 5:20 We are God’s ambassadors.

Mark 16:15 Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.

Romans 1:16  For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.

Are you spreading seeds for the Kingdom?  Pray and ask God give you opportunities and the alertness to notice them). Then  say a word about Jesus to those around you.