“As long as the earth endures, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease” (Gen. 8:22).
One day when we were visiting the farm shortly after Christmas, I took a walk up the dirt road to the hills beyond. I stopped to admire the panoramic view of the farmlands below, all blanketed in white. It struck me how still it was, the only sounds being an occasional crow calling, or the whisper of the wind. Motionless white mounds of snow lined the road. Just months ago, in this same spot, green grass grew, accented with wildflowers in six different colors. Now they were all gone, dead.
I knew, however, that beneath the frozen coverlet, in the hard ground, were seeds that would bring tiny plants in the spring, and flowers in the summer. I knew because our Father is a God of cycles. Spring follows winter, good follows bad.
The same is true of people. We tend to see some individuals as hopeless, dead in sin, doomed to failure. But God sees seeds of new life inside. He knows the potential He created in each of us; He anticipates what we can and will become with His help. He believed enough in those possibilities that He sent His Son to die to redeem us.
Let us look at people the way God does—as flower seeds. Let us warm them with God’s love, and water their deadness with prayers. Imagine what they will become with God’s help.
What sleeping seeds are you praying for?