Very truly I tell you, 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.

~John 12:24 NIV

The fruit of our planting seed may not appear for many years after we’re dead and gone.

The Planting

A cousin once gave me a small jar of grape jelly. It was made from the grapes my father planted many years ago. She now lives in my childhood home, where my dad grew the grapes. He always wanted land, but we grew up on an acre of ground in a little brown brick house. He raised a large family there and always had a garden and animals. My father always trusted that God would one day give him a bigger piece of property, but while he waited for God to fulfill that promise, he planted those grapes.

My father probably planted the grapes in the 1980s. He died in 2019, and I received the jar of jelly in 2024. It’s interesting how something planted long ago can still bear good fruit many years after the planter has died. Even more interesting is that someone saw the goodness in the fruit and made delicious jelly to give to a daughter so she could spread it years later on a piece of buttered toast.

Sow your seed in the morning, and at evening let your hands not be idle, for you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that, or whether both will do equally well.

~Ecclesiastes 11:6 NIV

We Christian writers also sow seeds. Maybe we’ve been spreading seeds for years without seeing as much fruit as we expected. Perhaps we wonder if we’re doing the right thing. Am I supposed to be writing fiction or non-fiction? Articles, devotions, or books? We can get discouraged because we don’t see the immediate fruit of our efforts. We should take Solomon’s advice and do both. Non-fiction and fiction might do equally well. We never know what God may do with the seeds we plant.

The Harvest

The real fruit may not show up for many years. But that doesn’t mean we stop doing what God has called us to do. We continue to plant and let God do the growing. We never know how many years it may take for a bumper crop to bloom, who may see the goodness in the fruit, or what kind of jelly they may make and give away. Only God knows how the gift of the jelly might touch the receiver’s heart. It may well be a precious gift.

Make sure you are planting. Then, leave the harvest up to God.

Heavenly Father, thank You for seeds to plant. In the powerful name of Jesus, amen.

Genre: Non-fiction

Copyright 2025: Planting Seeds: Melinda Eye Cooper: All Rights Reserved