I purchased organic sweet basil at a market three years ago. When the plants went to seed, I saved a few blossom stems, and in the following spring germinated the seed. I saved the $3 and enjoy the happy feeling of "growing my own". Due to summer travel, I was negligent of my basil plants this year, returning home to woody bushes covered with bloom stalks. The plants were so thick, the yellow finches were roosting in them! As I drank my coffee one morning enjoying the birds, I realized they were not roosting, but eating my seeds! Charming as it was, it fired a protective passion in me to harvest my seeds before the little birdies stole them all! I went out and harvested a ridiculous amount, then stopped and realized I would never use them all. I saved them anyway, to dry and package away for next spring.
A week of drying later, early on Saturday morn I began to process them. Praying as I worked I started pondering the parable of the sower and the seed. Luke 8:11 states "The seed is the Word of God." (NIV) I started thinking of all the seed I have neglected in my life. Just like the plants in the garden, because of neglect the birds had come and made a feast upon my next years crop. How many "words," or "seeds" have I missed the fruit of because I neglected to save and germinate them? At moments like this I rededicate myself to the sweet messages in the Bible and to respond to the quiet promptings of the Holy Spirit. I want to walk in respectful gratitude, stewarding faithfully His gifts of "seed" while not self-righteously keeping score in the harvest. I purpose to live intentionally in hope that when the day comes my conversation with the Father will follow the line of...
"When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’
‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’
(Matthew 25:39-40 NASB)
