I don’t live out in the country, but because I grew up a farm girl, I want to put seeds in the ground and show my kids where food comes from. Recently a friend told me about her city garden in their small backyard. I asked her what they grew and she smiled. “Well, it was a surprising experiment.” She went on to explain that they planted seeds and then threw compost on it to help it grow. But seeds that had been in their discarded garbage took root and grew better than the seeds they meant to plant.


Isn’t that a perfect image of how God often works? Experiences that we thought we discarded, or people we’ve long forgotten about, or situations we might have seen as “throwaways” rather than “seeds”… they end up bearing fruit in our lives! We often think we’re doing all the gardening in the church, but Paul reminds us that we do very little. God is making things grow; it is the Holy Spirit doing His cultivating and nurturing work. The fruit is His gift, not our work. He’s even watering seeds you never meant to plant.