The superpower of a seed is its ability to wait. Often the wait is brief—a few days or weeks in some cases, or more commonly a few months through winter. But seeds have far more waiting power than that. A 2,000-year-old date palm seed excavated from Herod the Great’s palace on Masada was successfully germinated in 2005. And viable campion wildflower seeds recovered from beneath Siberian permafrost are thought to be thousands of years older. Why do seeds wait? Because key soil conditions to support a seedling are lacking. To deliver the sprout too early would mean failure, so the seed waits. And waits.

AFM missionaries don’t work much with root cuttings or grafts. They spread seed. Some falls on the path or among the rocks and thorns and is bird-eaten, sun-scorched or weed-choked. Some falls on good ground and flourishes. Other seed just waits. And waits.

In the Philippines, Leonda George (p. 44) spread some seed when she treating a Palawano family’s health needs. They seemed disinterested in the gospel. Seed wasted, or seed waiting?

Years ago in Albania, Abdul listened as Sean Mays prayed for his dying father. God worked a miracle that night, but Abdul’s heart seemed unchanged. Seed wasted, or seed waiting (p. 14)?

In Benin, Hyacinthe planted a seed 15 years ago when God impressed him to give a Bible to an illiterate Muslim lady
(p. 06). She railed and shouted at him for his imposition, flinging the Bible into a corner. Certainly seed wasted! Or . . . ?
God has entrusted you with seeds, too. “You do the spreading,” He says. “I’ll watch over the waiting.”

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