The Gift of the Seed
By Doug Bing, Washington Conference president
I have a ceramic container that is sitting in a great location on my porch. It has great potting soil in it and has been receiving the proper amount of sunlight and moisture.
Yet for months nothing has grown from that container. I have checked regularly to see if any new green shoots appear and nothing is happening.
Two times I have planted seeds according to the directions on the seed packet. When the first round didn’t come up, I went and purchased more seeds. They also have not come up.
So I have been having to purchase chives from the store instead of enjoying them from my herb garden. Not sure what I have been doing wrong, but one thing I know is that the seeds have not germinated and no new life has come out of the planted seeds.
In John 12 Jesus spoke of the grain of wheat that must go into the ground and die in order to produce life.
He was, of course, speaking of His soon coming death. More than that, however, He was also speaking about us.
Notice these words in verses 25 and 26:
He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor.
If every seed in the world stopped doing what it was intended to do when it was planted, then every species would be extinct.
Seeds have to die in order for there to be new life and a continuation of life. It is the gift of the seed. It was the gift of Christ to die and as a result give us life. It is also what we do by dying to ourselves for Jesus and as a result we have eternal life.
Desire of Ages states is well when it says “to give is to live” (623). On the same page it states, “And the law of self-sacrifice is the law of self-preservation. The husbandman preserves his grain by casting it away.”
Our life will be preserved into new life as we cast away our own life in sacrifice for Jesus, doing what He asks each day and become totally involved in the ministry He gifts us for. New seeds will be grown that will continue the life-giving process.