Seed Planting

    Spring is here and seeds are in abundance, sprouting everywhere. In places where they are wanted, they are called “plants and flowers.” If they grow where they are not wanted, they’re “weeds!” The peas and green beans which Al planted in the garden several weeks ago are flourishing and will be ready to pick this summer.

    Tiny green seeds stick on the nose of our black lab and cover my running shoes after playing Frisbee on the back lawn. Besides in the lawn, clumps of annual bluegrass (weeds!) are taking over the paths around the pond, under shrubs, in potted plants and between cracks in the cement sidewalk.

    Seed sowing makes me think of my dad’s mother, Hazel Turner, who enjoyed working outside in her yard and rose garden, and who planted many seeds of love in the lives of her two sons, their wives and her ten grandchildren! As a child, it was always fun visiting Grandma Turner, who lived in Oakland, California.

   She was a single mom, supporting her family as a “beauty operator” from the little shop attached to the front of her house. Whenever we came for a visit, she would give up her bedroom and sleep in the attic so that there would be enough beds for us downstairs.

   One source of entertainment for us girls was to sit on a bench in front of the big mirror in her bedroom trying on various lipsticks, curling our eyelashes and making up our faces. Because of her line of work, she always had an ample supply of make-up.

   There were two small ceramic plaques on the wall just above her bed on either side of a framed picture. They must have been purchased as a set because both of them were embossed with Bible verses in yellow letters on a brown background and both had a border of painted flowers and birds around the edges. I remember reading them often.

   On one was written the verse from Matthew 5:9, “Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God.” A picture of Jesus’ face, shining and serene, was just above the scripture. The other was from Philippians 1:21, paraphrased so that it would rhyme: “Only one life. Twill soon be past, only what’s done for Christ will last. ‘To me to live is Christ.’”

   Grandma came to live with dad, mom and my youngest brother and sister during the last years of her life, after having a stroke which affected her right hand. It wasn’t life-threatening, but was just enough to convince her to close the beauty shop and move to Bakersfield to be with our family. It was while she was living in Bakersfield that she received Jesus into her heart as her Lord and Savior.

   After she passed away in the spring of 1976, the two plaques were passed along to me. They seemed all the more special because of the close bond I had with her and of all of the wonderful memories connected with her. Now they are hanging on the wall in the spare bedroom. Little did Grandma know that over the years, many seeds had been sown in my heart through the verses on her plaques. They were, and still are, powerful, life-changing words!  

   What kinds of seeds are you planting in the hearts and minds of the people closest to you?

“As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word, that goes out from my mouth; it will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” Isaiah 55:10-11 NIV