A Few Seeds

This spring I planted lettuce seeds.  For the past couple of summers I had bought already grown baskets of lettuce and enjoyed the small harvest immensly.  This year I decided to start from the beginning.  The little seed pots sat in a tray by the south window in dining room and slowly little lettuce sprouts appeared.  It felt a like a long, and often cold spring, as I watched them grow - so slowly!

Well, as you can see from the picture I've included here, they are fully grown and quite plentiful.  We are currently eating a lot of salad!!

In the daily lectionary readings from this past week, verses from Psalm 126 struck me.  In particular, verse six:

Those who go out weeping, carrying seed to sow,

will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with them.

Admittedly, I wasn't weeping when I planted the lettuce seeds.  However, like many of you, I was living life with all the demands life currently places on each of us.  Health issues, plans that didn't go according to plan, grief, worries about ones we love and all those other things that pop up despite our best laid plans.

Growing lettuce from seed has reminded me of a few things.  Firstly, patience.  One of my favourite pieces of prose is from Pierre Teilhard de Chardin:

Above all, trust in the slow work of God.
We are quite naturally impatient in everything to reach the end without delay.
We should like to skip the intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being on the way to something unknown, something new.

It takes time - everything does.  Change, healing, growth, life.  The seeds of hope need time within our hearts and minds to linger in the darkness and the warmth before they can sprout.  Then they need to be waited upon to grow - in their own time.

Secondly I've learned that tending to simpler things can be such a blessing when there is so much going on around us, so much that demands our attention and concern.  We cannot be "on" in a space of deep care all the time.  We were not created so.  Sabbath is not a day off from paid labour, it is meant to be a day that reminds us that we are beloved of God, held in the hands of the Creator, loved and entitled to deep soul rest.   Sabbath isn't just about Sundays and going to church.  It is about anything that takes us away and "offline" from the demands and hardships of life and gives us a place where we can breath a little more easily, even if for only a few minutes.  It restores our souls.

Back to the verse from Psalm 126.  I am struck by the idea of carrying seeds in my pocket, even when life has presented me with challenges.  Seeds are light and easy to carry.  And sowing them requires little more than dropping them in the right place.  Then, with a little patience and the right amount of tending (which is likely a place of rest and blessing to us), we see the sprouts of hope and "songs of joy" popping up.

My prayer for you, for all of us in this season of growth and abundance, is that we may be blessed by all the seeds that have been planted in our midst.  And if you need any lettuce for your salad, do not be shy to pop over the back deck of the rectory and take some.  We have lots!!