A Humble Seed

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. Psalms 139:13-16

Have you ever planted seeds, let’s say pumpkin seeds, then waited and watered till one-day small green growth appeared? Visual progress, it’s very exciting. Then you continue to nurture the young vulnerable plant with water, sunlight and fertilizer. It’s been several weeks now – even months - the plant is really taking off now! And suddenly, you notice the germinated plant that came from pumpkin seeds isn’t looking much like a pumpkin vine…in fact it’s producing strawberries!

No? Never had that happen? Of course not, pumpkin seeds make pumpkins. Acorns make oaks, and a rye seed grows a prolific unstoppable weedy grass. Certainly science and botanists have pushed the envelope in creating amazing variations, but when you set out to grow a certain seed – you know what to expect. Because in every seed is a blueprint.

It’s pretty amazing to look at two like size seeds and realize the potential in each one is vastly different. Each has it’s own unique and different path. For example an acorn and a crocus bulb, both begin as similar sized seeds, small brown and lifeless; neither looking anything like the beautiful living specimen that comes from the blueprint buried deep within. But if properly planted and cared for, one will produce a mighty oak giving shade and food for hundreds of years, the other – the bulb - will be showy and fragrant for a short season and then die into the ground.

Some of us wish to be the acorn, to do great and amazing things. We wish to grow into this big magnificent and important person, feeding many and providing shelter to all who seek rest. Others of us might wish to be that showy flower, strong and captivating. But one thing I know, if God blueprinted you to be a flower, you can’t be an oak and visa versa. God gave us life with a blueprint. He knew our potential, our story, and our effect on the world because He knew exactly what type of seed we were.

There is a seed in each of us, and God is our amazing botanist. He will nurture, water, fertilize and provide us all the sunshine we need to grow. But if I’m a bulb, and not an acorn, I need not attempt to change the thing God made me, my blueprint. I need to be a humble seed and allow the Botanist to germinate me into the wonderful thing He wants me to be. I need not envy all the other flowers, grasses and trees in the field, for I am special – so special – in exactly who God wants me to be.

The word of the LORD came to me, saying, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations." “Ah, Sovereign LORD," I said, "I do not know how to speak; I am only a child." But the LORD said to me, "Do not say, 'I am only a child.' You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you," declares the LORD. Then the LORD reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, "Now, I have put my words in your mouth…” Jeremiah 1:4-9

Related Links:

• Browse other Daily Devotions on CBN.com
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• Read other Devotions by Guest Authors
• Get more Guidance from Spiritual Life

Copyright 2009, Sherry Meneley. Used with permission.

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Sherry owns a business with her husband in California; she specializes in corporate, residential construction and human resource law. When she’s not working and researching law she spends much of her free time writing, leading different small groups with women and junior high girls and tries to show salt and light through involvement in a variety community services. She is also trained in crisis counseling and assault advocacy, which has allowed her to give time to organizations helping victims of domestic abuse. Contact Sherry by e-mail and check out her website called “Soiled Wings” inspired by God’s promise in Psalm 91:11.