Sowing the Seeds (10/11/2025)

I have a friend who grows the most marvelous marigolds. And when the blossoms begin to fade, she plucks them and saves them in a tin. And after they’ve completely dried, she pulls the blossoms apart, and wa-la, she has marigold seeds for next year. And the process begins all over again. Except she doesn’t hoard the seeds. She gives so many of them away. And across the neighborhood, and around the city, and beyond the state lines, her handiwork comes back in the form of new marigold plants that beautify neighborhoods.

Yesterday, as I was sitting on my porch and enjoying the beautiful garden next to it with huge, golden orange marigold blooms atop tall and plush plants, I thought about her and her generosity in giving the fruits of her own work away to bring joy into the lives of others. And I think she gets more joy in the seeds she gives away than in the seeds she sows in her own garden. I also think that she purposedly plants those marigolds knowing they will produce the potential for gardens far and wide. She isn’t so much a marigold magnate as a “potential” planter.

I wish there were more like her in our world who labor for the future joy of others. Our world could use a whole bunch of people like that. As I thought of future joy, I thought of my hope of life in abundance with the LORD and with loved ones and with warriors of the faith alongside angels and souls full of light. And I realized I am called to be a “potential” planter of faith, to grow my own faith, to care for it, to let it mature, and to share it with others so they might see the gift it is and want to cultivate their own.

The world needs “potential” planters who will tend to their own faith through prayer and through practice, who will share the fruit of their faith moment to moment with those around them so they might want to accept the gift and cultivate their own. We are called to sow the seeds in joy and with purpose.

May we take the time to recognize the gift we have in the faith and be willing to continue to sow the seeds and allow the Spirit to guide us.

Until tomorrow, let us all love well.