In today’s background photo you can see the 50 Pacific Dogwood trees hubby and I are planting this fall. Dogwood trees take a long time to grow! Years!
According to Google, it takes 18 months (or more) just for the seeds to germinate and sprout. Not only that, a four-month period of winter chill is required to trigger the seeds to germinate.
The dogwood seeds will supposedly grow 12 to 30 inches in the first year and will bloom in 5-7 years.
I don’t know if hubby and I will still be living on this forested property by the time the dogwood trees finally bloom. But we are planting for the future, nonetheless.
I have always been intrigued by the passage in Genesis 21:33 about how Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba. According to the passage, Abraham did this immediately after a treaty had been made with Abimelech and Phicol; and after planting the tree, Abraham called upon the name of the LORD, the Eternal God.
Abraham was planting for the future.
Just like dogwood trees, tamarisk trees take a long time to grow! And just like hubby and me, Abraham didn’t know how long he would be living there. The planting of the tree was a demonstration of Abraham’s faith in the Eternal God … the fact that God is eternal and will always be … no matter how long Abraham was able to live in that place or not. Just as the tamarisk tree would long outlive Abraham and be in that place to benefit those who came after him … so also the Eternal God would outlast Abraham and be there to help and provide for those who would come after.
Planting for the future.
I don’t know if hubby and I will be able to see these dogwood seeds grow into flowering trees, but we too are planting for the future. So also, in the same way, each one of us is planting spiritual “seeds” for the future.
We don’t know what the Eternal God will do with the “seeds” we plant today.
The “seeds” we scatter from our lives today will long outlast us … impacting those who come after us … as the Eternal God, who outlast each one of us, brings about His Kingdom purposes through those “seeds.”
Let each season of your life produce an abundance of “seeds” for God’s Kingdom!
Let those “seeds” freely fall … through the changing of the seasons.
And trust that the Eternal God will bring about a great Kingdom harvest from those “seeds”!
