Scatter the Seeds

January 5

We’ve all heard the riddle, ‘What would you do if the world were to come to an end tomorrow?’ and the answer is, ‘Plant a tree.’ This wise counsel indeed propagates the notion that hope springs eternal and man should never give up. Where there is life, there is hope. Best of all, however, we who believe know that where there is Christ, there is life after life.

Everyone longs for the assurance of fulfillment in life and of joy in the presence of God when our brief sojourn in time is done. Some people who do not know Jesus, go to extraordinary lengths in their attempt to appease their angry god. They will crawl on their foreheads to reach a shrine to lessen his wrath; they will blow themselves up in an effort to diminish his anger.

But those who know Jesus are aware that our profoundest yearnings to attain the righteousness we must possess in order to one day see His holy face cannot be attained through anything we can do on our own. Jesus has done everything for us at the cross. Our part is simply to receive His “unspeakable gift,” II Corinthians 9:15.

Of our longings, the Word says in Proverbs 13:12, “A longing fulfilled is a tree of life.” This speaks of the import of those things that profoundly impact our hearts. Our longing to know God and to be acceptable in His sight is the profoundest yearning of our souls and the writer of Proverbs understood that when that incomparable longing was fulfilled, the rest of life would be reconciled to our Holy God.

The things for which we yearn deeply are the stuff that makes the essence of life. We cry within our spirits to have a sense of well-being. We want to know that all is well for not just ourselves but also for those whom we love. We pray and seek the face of the Lord in the behalf of our family, our friends, our brothers in Christ. And He assures us that He hears and cares.

He knows that when we attain the object of our deep striving, we will thrive in our inner man as does the well-watered tree that spreads its branches to give shade and offer its fruit to sustain life. Our lives benefit the lives of those around us when we bask in the assurance that our Jesus never fails.

We become His partners in the giving of life eternal when we share our knowledge of Him with those within our sphere of influence. When we walk hand-in-hand with the Savior, we help Him scatter the seeds of life. No matter where those seeds fall, life will spring up, because Jesus is our Tree of Life!