planting

 Ive been going back and forth to England over the past six months, usually by plane, in an attempt to spend more time with my 84 year old Mum while she is still with us.  Recently someone challenged me to offset my carbon footprint with regards to the flights.  So I had a look into it and discovered that, to the best of my understanding, each return flight Belfast to Luton generates carbon to the tune of 8 trees worth.  Or something like that. 

So this autumn Ive collected acorns and conkers and beech nuts and rowan berries and Ive been planting them in the hope that at some point, years down the line, I might have raised a copse or a wooded area to offset all the carbon Ive generated by being alive. 

The problem is that acorns and conkers take a long time to germinate and sprout. Im not expecting to know whether any of them will grow at all until next year.  Maybe even the year after that.  So in effect, Im planting them in faith.

This evening whilst I was thinking about this I suddenly remembered the sunday school activity we did a while back where we planted cress seeds with the kids.  Cress is perfect for illustrating a point to small children because cress will germinate within a couple of days and grow pretty well within a week.  Without even needing soil. Wet cotton wool seems to do the trick just as well.

Tiny seeds sown on cotton wool give really quick results which can be eaten in a week.  Larger seeds sown in the earth take a very long time to show results, but the results they do give can last for centuries. Both sorts of sowing take faith.  And I think God is saying that there is room for all sorts of sowing in our Christian lives.  Sometimes we pray and the answer appears before we have stopped praying. At other times we pray and the answer doesn't come for years or decades.  Sometimes we speak into someone's life and see change and fruit and progress right away. And other times the words we speak get filed away and apparently have no effect at all.  We cant really determine the quality of the soil in someone else's life.  All we can do is sow the seed and let God do the rest.  Cress is just as valid as Redwood as a crop.  If you are growing cress right now then go for it. Don't despise the day of small beginnings (Zech 4:10)   And if you are growing mighty oaks then settle in for the long haul, pray for patience and longsuffering and trust that God's processes are good.