Grow or Die

Take a look in the garden, and see the tiniest of seedlings, poking their heads up from the ground. A straight row of peas are planted along the fence, and rows of carrots, lettuce and potatoes are in the front, and near the garden gate is a little patch just for the herbs. It is a beautiful sight, and it seems so perfect. But look closer.

If you go along that row of peas, you will find a few “empty” spaces among the new little plants. All the seeds that you planted a week and a half ago are not all sprouting. The soil is the same, you have watered each one faithfully. Yet, there are those empty spots of nothing.

Dig down a little, and find that seed. Look at it, and see what is the problem. It’s simple. It didn’t grow. It didn’t sprout up, and push through the soil like the others, it just sat their dormant. Lifeless. It did not grow and so it has died, and is decaying, rotting away, giving nothing to show for it’s life and death.

So, you say, what about it? It’s always that way in the garden. Some grow, and some don’t. The seeds have no choice, they just do as they are made to, or not.

It is true, the seed may not choose to grow or to not. God has not given that choice to them. But what about you, what about me?

In a sense, we are like those little seeds. God has planted us, He has watered us. And He has given us the choice- to respond to these things with spiritual growth, or to sit there dormant, still, and lifeless. God has given us everything we need to sprout, to push through the dark soil and into the sunshine. He has given us all that we need to stretch our leaves and stem upward, ever upward. He has given us the ability to bear fruit. Yet, it is our choice to respond or not. To respond is to live. Just as the seed must either grow or die, so it is with us. We must grow in our relationship with Christ, or we must die, whither away, leaving nothing to show for the life and opportunity God had given us.

To choose life is to choose an experience that does not stand still. To choose life is to chose to allow the watering of God, the wedding of the Master Gardener, the sunshine of His face to create a response in us- the response of growing. The life of Christianity is about growth.

2 Peter 3:18: “But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.”

Ephesians 4:13-15: “Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ.”

Jesus used the growth of the plant to demonstrate the growth of one who would believe on Him.

Mark 4:28: “For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.”

Our life as a Christian starts with the sprouting. Then the putting forth of leaves, and continues until we reach a mature fruit-bearing plant. It is a process, and it is continual. It isn’t always easy, and it’s not a life, comfortable and painless. Growth comes with pain.

Imagine what would happen if the garden peas would decide at any point in their growth that they were tired of it, that they were not going to grow anymore. What would happen to those plants except that they would, like the seeds who never grew at all, die? Only their death wouldn’t be so quiet, and unnoticeable.

Imagine us, if we do the same. Would we not die, too? Unless we allow God to cultivate us, to water us with His word, and to shine upon us with the sunshine that gives life to our hearts, we too will die, fade away. For there are but two options for each one of us- To grow and live, or to stay a seed and die.

Choose life. The pain is temporary, it is worth it. Choose to allow Him “grow you”, to stretch you. Let Him cultivate you, and mature you into His image. May we be as “plants grown up” in His garden.