What We Plant

Last weekend my hubby and I attended a celebration service in honor of the passing of one of our church members. He was an older gentleman who was a retired horticulturist. He loved to plant things and had been in charge of planning and planting all of the landscaping at our church. He was also an adult Sunday school teacher and he loved the Bible.

On the day of his passing, he worked on the grounds at the church and then went home and worked in his own garden. He went to sleep that night, next to his bride of 35 years. Sometime during the night, Jesus called him home.

As the pastor and the speakers talked about all he had planted, it occurred to me that I will think of him each time I drive into the church parking lot. When you plant a lot of things, you leave a lot of life behind. You leave some beautiful reminders for those who are still living on this side of eternity, of your time here.

It also occurred to me that he planted some different types of seeds in his Sunday school class. Those seeds have sprouted as well. The members in that class have likely spread some seeds of their own, that they got from him. Those too, are beautiful reminders of his time here on this side of eternity. His memory will live on for a very long time, physically as well as spiritually.

My grandmother planted trees and flowers that are still growing and thriving and she’s been in Heaven for forty-seven years now. I never met her, but I’m named after her and I’ve always held the stories of her close to my heart. Although, she’s not physically here, her memory lives on, not only in the physical plantings she left behind, but in the spiritual ones too.

It seems to me, that we all have a choice of how we will spend our time on our finite journey here. We can spend a lot of time being angry about what was or wasn’t or what is or isn’t. We can spend our time mourning the past. We can spend our time fearing the future. We can spend our time focused on all of our shortcomings or on our own greatness, or we can plant.

We can plant physical seeds to leave reminders, but more importantly, we can plant spiritual seeds of the faith, hope, and love, that is Christ, and those seeds will never die.

A celebration service for a faithful servant reminded me of the many choices before us. Perhaps you needed reminding too.

Have an awesome day!
Wendy 🙂