God instructs us to learn spiritual principles from His physical creation

Have you considered the example of the seed?  When we think of the word seed, we usually think of those little things that we stick in our garden, with great hopes that in time that seed will transform into some kind of fruit or vegetable. A seed carries within itself new life. Paradoxically, it has to be buried before it can bring forth that new life.  In the Bible, This word is used as a metaphor for spiritual birth or new beginning.                                                                               

In today’s Gospel seed was cast onto differing types of environments, yielding varying rates of failure and success. When a seed is exposed to fire, extreme heat or a period of freezing temperatures, a chemical change occurs, triggering the seed to grow; in the same way, trials trigger us to grow: God uses problems, troubles and afflictions to strengthen His begotten children—to cause us to learn, change, grow, endure and overcome.                                    

Ultimately, the seed’s sole purpose is to reproduce its own kind; in the same way, God is reproducing His “own kind” through man. As His “first fruits,” God gave us the “seed” of His Spirit, with the potential to become like Him. The next time you do a little planting in your garden or see a farmer planting his field, remember the example God has given us in the little seed! If any of the examples God leaves us—in recent Church history, in the Bible and in nature—are a gauge, then very exciting times are ahead.