Seeds

 ...for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God. 1 Peter 1:23

The Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field, and this is smaller than all other seeds; but when it is full grown, it is larger than the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches. Matthew 13: 31-32

When I was a little girl, my grandmother gave me a necklace with a tiny glass pendant on it. Inside the glass was encased a mustard seed. She told me the parable of the mustard seed and its significance. Whenever I wore it, it sparked many conversations. I remember it often, and think how ironic it is that small things, even children, have endless potential. 

I did not fully come to be in wonder of this until I started following the stages of a young friend who recently became pregnant. Even at a few weeks' pregnancy, with the baby in its most rapid stages of growth, it was merely the size of a sesame seed. Yet in that thing barely visible to the naked eye, is the germ of a human being. 

This spring I planted a number of seeds, and most of them have been larger than sesame seeds; but they have grown into amazing flowering plants that will never be as large as I am. Yet that sesame seed-sized baby will become a fully developed human. (Please do not take any of this as an expression of a political or legal view.)

I believe that size does not matter in God's world. There is no limitation conferred on things in God's eyes. Little and big have no meaning to the God who counts the hairs on our heads or creates the universe. Little things truly do count. Small pleasures, moments of enlightenment, tiny miracles that advance us in our growth; because growth does indeed matter, even when size does not.  

I am fascinated, in the spring and summer, watching the stages of growth in nature. It is encouraging to believe that I am capable of infinitesimal growth during any moment on this earth. That, to me, is what being alive is all about. Seeds and atoms and other minutiae are the building blocks of life in the natural world, and their transformation, by growth or by gathering in community, is revolutionary. The process is exhilarating and powerful.

"For a seed to achieve its greatest expression, it must come completely undone. The shell cracks, its insides come out and everything changes. To someone who doesn't understand growth, it would look like complete destruction." Cynthia Occelli

Prayer: God in whose hands are many seeds, help us to understand big and small things beyond the condition of their size. Help us to see what matters, and to grow in communion with all the sacred things that flower in your world. Thank you for the miracle and wonder of transformation and growth and help us to experience those gifts as we grow in the true knowledge of your boundless creation. Become the smallest thing at our center, and the largest thing all around us. Amen.

Mollie Manner (reprinted from 2019)