A Seed of Hope

I saw it in her hand as she waited for her teacher to open the van door. My heart fluttered nervously.

It can’t be, my mind raced.

Sure enough as soon as she stepped into the van her smile shone bright and she held out the small white styrofoam cup.

“Look mom, tomato plants,” she slightly tipped the cup so I could see the ten or so small tiny green seedlings.

My heart dropped because this is what I do to plants:

My smiling girl added, “We have to put the tomato plants in a pot mom!”

Now don’t get me wrong I eventually water my plants. In fact my husband accuses me of running a plant concentration camp. I wait until they are almost dead and then I finally water them…

So I told my precious child, “Those tomato plants are too small to pot right now. Let’s keep them in the cup for a week or so and then we can try to put them in a pot.”

Secretly I hoped: A. my girl would lose interest and I could through the cup away, B. the cup would tip over in the car and although I would have to clean dirt out of the van I would not have to try to keep a tomato plant alive (I may have taken a few corners faster than normal on the way home), C. somehow the little seedlings would get over watered or under watered and die.

A month went by and I could no longer put off the pleas of planting the tomato seedlings. So we bought a pot and some soil. The next day – while I was on the phone – we transferred the seedlings to the pot. I prayed we wouldn’t kill the little seedlings while we watered them. It was touch and go, but for about a week we had ten seedlings growing strong.

Then came the rain and all the seedlings disappeared. My precious child took the news better than I did. Perhaps she realized I have a brown thumb and it was amazing just to get seedlings in a pot. I was quite disappointed, but not surprised. However I was too busy to bring the pot into the garage. So it sat outside without a plant in it for quite sometime.

And then one day there was something green poking out of the soil.

It’s probably a weed, I thought. But I left it there because it brought a smile to my girl. Well, that weed proved to be a tomato plant. A real tomato plant and guess what?

Yesterday I found a tiny tomato on it. I couldn’t believe how that tiny seedling survived being covered in dirt, the heat, the crazy rain storms, and is now bearing fruit (yes tomatoes are fruit).

Isn’t that like what God does in our lives? We have a seed of hope and He buries it because unless it dies it can’t grow. Then there are these fragile seedlings that need close attention and protection from extreme elements. When it is time to transplant them and put them outside there is risk. Will they make it? How much water can they handle? And even then sometimes you lose them all – or so it seems. God is in the business of bringing life from death. Death of some dreams to make life of other ones possible or death to a dream the way we planned it while all along God was strengthening the roots so it would grow at the right time.

Today I start a new adventure. Today is my first day as a homeschooling mama. I step into this adventure trusting God with the results and praying it bears fruit.

What seed of hope are you praying bears fruit?