Doug Creamer: Sowing Seeds

Published 12:00 am Saturday, May 27, 2017

            This has been a crazy gardening year. We had that very warm end of winter that caused spring to start arriving back in February. We all thought we were in for an early spring and then winter came back. We had that streak of cold weather which almost destroyed all our fruit crops. I hope we are going to get peaches this year; I don’t think I can go two years in a row without local peaches.

            On top of all the crazy weather, I was in the process of building some raised beds for my vegetables. My Mom has been growing her vegetables in raised beds for a while now and I wanted to duplicate her success. Finding the time to get the beds built and the soil delivered and moved into the beds has been quite a challenge. I also built some raised beds for my wife’s daylilies.

            Getting everything done this year has been quite a challenge. The first thing I planted this year was my tomatoes, crazy, right? Well, I finally have all the seeds planted and most have popped up and started growing. My vegetables will be later, but I am hopeful that we…and not the deer…will enjoy a bountiful harvest.

            While the vegetable garden is off and running, we are behind on getting my wife’s flowers planted. She always has planters filled with beautiful flowers. We have some of the plants but we need more. My wife always makes the most interesting planters and keeps the porches covered with plants that make our house feel like an oasis. We both enjoy just sitting on our porch surrounded by her beautiful plants and flowers.

            My wife and I love to spend hours on a Saturday walking around garden centers just looking at all the beautiful plants. We love to pick out plants to bring home and make our home their home. While we like to work with plants in cell packs for the flowers, I still enjoy growing most of my vegetables from seed. There is nothing like working the soil and then putting the seeds in the ground. I watch every day to see if the seeds have sprouted. The anticipation and excitement of a new growing season is almost uncontainable.

            Vegetable seeds are not the only seeds I like to plant. I also like to plant spiritual seeds. There are the seeds the pastor deposits in us each week during his sermon. I also believe that we can plant spiritual seeds in our own lives by spending time in God’s word. We can plant the seed, water it, meditate on it and then watch it grow in our own lives.

            We need the truths of God’s word to grow in our lives. When we discover God’s ways and apply those truths to our lives we are planting and nurturing seeds of faith. The Bible is full of God’s promises and truths, which are like seeds. They will not do anything while the book stays closed on a shelf. We have the responsibility to read the Bible and not just read it as a story but as a blueprint on how to live our lives. When we do that we are taking the seeds and planting them in the good soil of our hearts where we will one day gather a harvest.

            Another important thing we can do is take the good seeds from the harvest in our lives and share them with those who don’t believe. We can plant those seeds, which are our testimonies, in other people’s lives where they will sprout and produce a harvest in them. It’s not just pastors who have stories and testimonies to share. We all have seeds we can share in order to help bring in the harvest. There are people around us every day who need to hear the good news we have to share. We have the hope, grace, forgiveness, and mercy…our seeds… that they need to discover the love of our Father in Heaven.