It is currently snowing … big beautiful flakes! So pretty! I can only remember one other time it snowed in April.
Here you can see all our little pots of Pacific Dogwood seeds.
Dogwood seeds require a period of stratification (cool temperatures and moisture) in order to sprout. The moisture helps to soften the hard outer seed-coating.
The Big-Leaf Maple seeds which fell in abundance this past Fall are all coming up like gangbusters! Everywhere!! They’ve done quite well with all the cold winter weather, and the endless rain and moisture. I sure hope the Pacific Dogwood seeds respond likewise.
When it comes to being a Christian, we each are like these Dogwood seeds. We each start out with a hard heart … just like the Dogwood seeds have a hard outer seed-coating.
Just like the Dogwood seeds need moisture and time for the hard outer seed-coating to soften, so also each of us need the “moisture” of the water of God’s Word (John 4:13-14). And we each need time.
Given moisture, the right conditions, and time … the Dogwood seeds will sprout. So also, as the water of God’s Word softens our hard hearts … and as we, over time, process the Spiritual truth we are receiving, so too we come to new life in Christ. (2 Corinthians 5:17) The old seed coating is shed, and new life emerges from the seed!
When it comes to Dogwoods, there are lots of different varieties. Here you can see a photo of a big, beautiful Dogwood tree which grew in my backyard when my family lived for a brief period near the Chesapeake Bay.
As you might be able to tell from the photo, this Dogwood tree was very tall … stretching far above my house and reaching high towards the sky! In April it was covered with the most beautiful white Dogwood blossoms.
When most people think of a Dogwood, this is what they think of. A tree. Perhaps an understory tree, covered all over with beautiful white or pink blossoms. Or perhaps a tall tree like this one, stretching high towards the sky.
The Chesapeake Bay area was a completely different climate with completely different growing conditions than the Puget Sound area where I now currently live. In our forest, we have growing a groundcover which is also in the Dogwood family: the Bunchberry Dogwood thrives in the wet temperate evergreen forests of the Pacific Northwest.
Here you can see the Bunchberry Dogwood.
Clearly the blooms are Dogwood blooms … and clearly the leaves are Dogwood leaves. But it is not at all a tree. It is a groundcover plant … which spreads through an underground root system. It also spreads its seeds by an ingenious trebuchet mechanism, which projects and propels the seeds far out into the forest away from the parent plant.
When it comes to being a Christian, many people have in their mind a preconceived idea of what a “Christian” is supposed to look like. Just as when most people think of a Dogwood, they immediately think of a Dogwood tree.
If a person were shown a Bunchberry Dogwood and told that this too was in the Dogwood family of plants, they would probably be skeptical and say that there’s no way a groundcover could be a Dogwood. Everybody knows that a Dogwood is obviously an understory deciduous tree.
In the same way, when we accept Jesus’s free gift of salvation and become part of God’s family, so also we too, as “Christians” are all kinds of different “varieties.”
God has made us all different … on purpose … specifically suited for the exact location where He has “planted” us.
Some “Christians” look like the stereotypical Dogwood trees that everyone would expect. However, other “Christians” don’t look anything at all like a tree … but rather like a groundcover. And still other “Christians” don’t look either like a tree or a groundcover … but rather like a shrub.
Here you can see our Red-Twig Dogwood shrub. We planted this Dogwood shrub 2 years ago … but as you can tell from the photo, it is struggling to survive.
Every time this Red-Twig Dogwood starts to get new growth and new leaves … the deer eat it all off! The plant doesn’t even have a chance to grow. It keeps getting nibbled on and eaten back.
This is a good picture of what happens in the Church when Christians have a certain expectation of what a good “Christian” is supposed to look like. If someone comes along and doesn’t look the way that’s expected … then they are “nibbled on” and “eaten back.”
I mentioned in yesterday’s blog post that as I was growing up, and throughout my college years, I had regular Bible teaching which reinforced what a good “Christian” was supposed to look like.
After college God began heavy-duty work on my heart, convicting me of my judgementalism, condescension, and arrogance. As I repented of this sin, my eyes were opened to the amazing diversity within God’s family.
As “Christians” we all are not made to look exactly the same.
Our differences show the incredible love and grace of God … that He would lavish His gift of salvation on all of us! Some of us are Dogwood “trees” … some of us are Bunchberry Dogwood “groundcover” … and some of us are Red-Twig Dogwood “shrubs.”
But we all are part of the same family.
