They lay on the ground, looking to be finished with their life cycle and at first glance I hadn’t even noticed them. When the light of the sun shone on their browned husks, red sparkles shined like hot embers or miniature stars gone nova in red heat. The red seeds were so beautiful; they really dressed up the whole pod. I was reminded of small Christmas trees or lovely pine cones. I picked a couple up and put them in my pocket. I suspected if I wasn’t in front of a public business I would have gathered all I could find off the ground beneath that odd tree.
I brought them home and sat them on my table. I enjoy picking them up and looking at them closely. Beauty really is in the eye of the beholder and these seed pods were unlike anything I had seen before. I marveled at their uniqueness. Even though they were of the same species and shared general characteristics, clearly they had different sides to them. One wore itself in a rather pointed manner while the other was more closed up.
The bright red seeds each carried the possibility of new life in them. If they could find good soil to burrow in and be generously watered, they could spring forth life of their own and multiply. Before they could even have that possibility, it was clear they had to die first.
Gazing at these two pods I can’t help but think about how people are akin to these. We burst forth into being; all new, young and fresh only to learn a clock is ticking. The time we have to walk on this earth is limited. We ourselves have so many seeds of love within us. If we are unselfish we can seek out the good soil in others and plant these seeds. If our clock is generous, we may even be able to water them and watch them bring forth new life of their own. To have enough seeds though, we ourselves have to die first. Die to our selfishness, our self-centeredness, our greed, our envy and especially die to our pride. It’s in the dying where we find our seeds multiply on their own and we are unable to help but give these seeds away to all those around us.
Yes beauty is in the eye of the beholder and I see a beautiful plan and purpose in dying to myself.
(NKJV)Rom 8:13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
(Msg) Rom 8:9 But if God himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of him. Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ, won’t know what we’re talking about.
10 But for you who welcome him, in whom he dwells – even though you still experience all the limitations of sin – you yourself experience life on God’s terms. 11 It stands to reason, doesn’t it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he’ll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ’s! 12 So don’t you see that we don’t owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent. 13 There’s nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do is give it a decent burial and get on with your new life.