Does it strike you as a wonder that from the death of even the smallest seed a mighty tree can grow forth? It should. How can it be that within one acorn is contained the life of an oak that will live for hundreds of years? Equally amazing is it that such a small vessel can contain all that is necessary to produce another, each after its own kind. It is a process that has been carried on faithfully for thousands of years; a tree grows, produces a seed, the seed must fall to the ground and die, and then from the death of that seed grows up an image of the tree that came before. Not a copy, but a likeness of it, close to its parent in numerous ways.
However, that wonder of new growth can never happen if that seed does not die. Christ Himself acknowledges the power of this principle in the gospel of John when he declares, “unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” (12:24). And not only did he speak words to affirm it as truth, he also exemplified it with his life. Christ died, “that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.” (Romans 8:29) From the seed of his life he brought forth a hundred fold harvests, making fertile the soil in which we grow as Christians. So it is with the seed in nature, so it was with Christ, and so it is meant to be in our lives today.
As that acorn dies and brings forth generations of trees after it “according to its kind”, so shall we. All of us will die, it is the human lot. The question is, what seed shall you leave behind. For as God declared at the beginning of creation, all things will bear fruit “according to their kind.” Oak leads to oak, lion to lion, and weed to weed. Christ dies and brings forth “sons of God,” in the image of he himself who was the Son of God.
We must ask ourselves, what type of seed shall our lives leave behind? Will they be weeds that choke out the others around them? Saplings that are weak and sickly all their lives? Trees that grow tall and quick and appear strong but rot from within? Or will we bring forth great redwoods that shall endure fire and storm, oaks that shelter their weaker brethren beneath wide branches, and trees that shall bear much fruit to feed those that come after? “Like produces like.” You shall leave seeds behind in this life when you go. What that seed will bear will be in large part dependent upon who you have been.
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