I have been having such a good time with my Advent Seed Calendar which my son and daughter-in-law gave me for Christmas.
Here you can see my Advent Seed Calendar back in December as I was opening up a new flap each day to discover a new little packet of seeds.
I have been anxiously awaiting when I can finally plant my seeds.
With the weather warming up, it seemed like a good time to start planting my seeds. The very first seeds I decided to plant were Arugula, Butterhead lettuce, and Basil. I thought these might do well growing indoors.
I needed an indoor planting tray … so why not use the upside-down lid from a ginormous cookie platter from Costco. I filled the upside-down lid with potting soil … carefully sprinkled on the seeds … and added a very thin layer of soil on top.
Now to water my seeds!
But I don’t have an indoor watering can. I only have the big green garden watering can which dribbles everywhere and makes a mess.
Hmmm … I can’t just use a cup and pour water on. That would be too much force of water and might perhaps wash the seeds too deep into the soil.
I know! I have a little travel spray bottle. I’ll mist the seeds until they sprout. Once they sprout, their roots will anchor them and I can swap to pouring water out of a cup.
So that is what I have been doing. I’ve been misting and misting my planting tray full of seeds.
It is very time consuming to mist a planting tray full of seeds with a little travel spray bottle. But it works.
And so, as I stand there misting my seeds I can’t help but think how that when God first created the world and planted the Garden of Eden, God himself misted his garden which he had just planted.
“This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created. When the LORD God made the earth and the heavens … a mist came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground.” – Genesis 2:4-6
How cool is that! God misted the garden he had just planted.
But God’s mist came up from underneath the ground. How brilliant is that! My misting of my planting-tray “garden” is from the top. I can spray and spray and spray … and yes, it gets the soil moist. But as I look through the clear plastic upside-down-lid I can see that only the top ¼” of the soil is moist. Below ¼” the soil is still quite dry.
The moisture from my misting dries out very quickly (especially when the sun shines through the back windows and heats everything up). But if my planting tray were to have a mist which came up from underneath the dirt … it would never dry out. It would always be perfectly moist, so that the seeds and plants could flourish. God’s way of tending his garden was so brilliant!
And so … the misting has worked beautifully to get the seeds to sprout. The Arugula seeds were the first seeds to spring up!
The joy of having a clear plastic upside-down-lid as a planting tray is that you can actually see the roots going down, as the little green sprouts go up. It’s the coolest thing ever!
What has surprised me is that even though the little green sprouts don’t look like much from above … they have a lot of roots developing underneath the dirt. When I pick up the clear plastic upside-down-lid and look at the bottom, the entire bottom of the planting tray is now covered with an intertwining network of roots.
I realize with dismay that the misting is only penetrating the top ¼” of the soil, and all those roots down there at the bottom aren’t getting the moisture they need!
This will not do!
It is time to start dribbling on water from out of a cup. The soil needs more water! Those roots down there at the bottom of the upside-down-lid need some moisture!
This makes me think of the verse: “I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it.” – 1 Corinthians 3:2
Or my own personal paraphrase: “I gave you a gentle misting, not a pouring of water from out of a cup/watering can, because you tiny little seeds couldn’t handle that much force of water yet.”
In the above verse Paul is speaking to new believers in Jesus Christ. These people are brand new in their faith in Jesus. They don’t know the deep truths of Scripture. They have simply heard the good news about salvation in Jesus and they have believed.
New Christians are like tiny little seeds. They need a gentle misting of the “water” of the Word of God. They need the truths of Scripture given to them gently and in a way that they can understand. Just like the little seeds in my planting tray need a gentle, regular misting in order to sprout.
And just like my little seeds in my planting tray don’t yet have roots to anchor them, in order to be able to handle water poured out of a cup/watering can … so also, brand new followers of Jesus Christ don’t yet have the “roots” (spiritually speaking) to be able to handle heavy doctrines of theology poured out on them.
This is reiterated by the Apostle Peter: “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow …” – 1 Peter 2:2
Or my own personal paraphrase: “Like tiny little seeds, crave a gentle regular misting of the water of the Word of God, which will cover and saturate you with God’s truth, so that you can sprout and grow …”
It’s good for tiny little seeds up at the top of the soil to have a gentle regular misting.
But once the seeds sprout and begin to send down roots … a gentle misting is not enough. The surface misting can’t reach the roots. The surface misting can’t provide moisture down at the deeper level where the network of roots is expanding.
So also in the same way, when it comes to the Christian life, we need more than a gentle “surface misting” of the water of the Word of God. We need deeper spiritual truths if we are going to grow in our Christian life.
The writer of the letter of Hebrews was really frustrated because the Christians (who should have been growing in their faith with strong deep “roots”) were still only getting a “surface misting” of the water of the Word of God.
The author wrote: “You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.” – Hebrews 5:12-14
Or, my own personal paraphrase: “You should be a growing plant with deep roots … but your roots are still so shallow! All you ever have is a surface misting of the water of the Word of God. Your roots are shallow and at the surface, and you don’t know much about the deepness of who God is or how he wants you to live in righteousness.
“But water from a watering can is for mature, growing, healthy, flourishing plants which have roots anchored deep in the soil. These mature plants are producing a harvest of righteousness.”
As we each look at our own lives … are we a tiny little seed up at the surface of the soil, needing a gentle regular misting of the water of the Word of God as we begin our Christian journey?
Or … are we a tender green sprout in the process of sending down roots … and starting to need the water of the Word of God at a deeper level?
Or … are we a plant that is trying to grow, but only have moisture from the water of the Word of God in the shallow top ¼” of the “soil” of our life?
Or … are we a mature, growing, healthy, flourishing plant with deep roots anchored deep in the soil, and producing a harvest of righteousness?
