“I’m gonna go plant it!” River, who is four years old, would exclaim about the seed after devouring a delicious tropical fruit. With the juice still dripping from his chin, he would race to the backyard and pop his latest seed into our garden bed. Longans, lychees, durian, rambutan, it did not matter.

We chuckled at his ignorance and indifference to recommended planting depth, planting season, preferred soil, whether or not to sprout the seed first before planting, etc. River has no inhibitions when it comes to gardening. A seed is meant to grow in dirt, right? So he is going to plant it. We did not expect much from it but allowed his innocent new hobby.

Well, lo and behold, several months later, we now have baby longan, lychee, durian and rambutan trees. “What’s this one?” I would ask him.

“Lychee,” he would say with utmost confidence. Sure enough, just under the soil at the base of the seedling is the shell of a lychee seed. He knows what he sowed and where he sowed it. And that which he sowed, he expects to reap.

“But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully
will also reap bountifully”
(2 Corinthians 9:6).

Why is it that with age, we develop so many inhibitions and such skepticism?

“Should I plant some tomatoes?” Eric asked, shuffling through some seed packets he had bought for our new garden. With neither of us being green thumbs, we were going to experience a lot of trial and error.

“I don’t know. I have heard tomatoes can be really vulnerable to bugs and disease,” I said skeptically. I remembered my sickly tomato plant withering in my Florida yard. To this day, we have not yet planted tomatoes here.

But what if, like River, we have a zero-inhibition approach to gospel seed sowing? Of course, we can be intentional and tactful, but I think we often get too caught up in what-ifs, fear of embarrassment, and the worry that our seeds will not sprout or that they will succumb to outside threats.

What if, when we partake of the Word and, with the sweet taste of Jesus’ love for us still lingering on our lips, we immediately sow these seeds in those around us? Or what if, when we read an uplifting passage in the Bible, we immediately pass it on to a friend? And what if, when we felt God’s grace on an extra hard day, we immediately testify of His mercies to a neighbor? What if, like River, we plant without inhibitions and leave it up to God to do the rest?

“Assuredly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it” (Mark 10:15).

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