Seeds

For a short period of my life, my family owned a beautiful German Shepherd K-9 officer (retired) affectionately named “Scotch”. Scotch was not only very beautiful but he was very well trained and obedient. There was however a young boy named Petey who lived on our block and was the neighborhood terror. He made it a habit to taunt Scotch and our little daschund or any other dog in the area by banging on the fence with sticks or throwing rocks etc. One afternoon, when my sister and I accidentally left the gate unlatched, our little daschund wandered out to the front yard to check things out just as Petey was walking by. Seeing the opportunity to torture yet another dog, Petey chased after the daschund barking and growling and poking her back end with a stick. Right as he approached the gate Scotch went after him in true K-9 officer fashion and took a large bite of his arm. As you can imagine, Scotch was confiscated by animal control and caught "kennel cough" while locked up and then passed away. Ever since I’ve always wanted another German shepherd.

Last year my husband and I adopted a beautiful German shepherd puppy from the local dog shelter and named her “Cali”. Cali puts the “punk” in spunk and is a fun-loving, hyperactive, people-pleaser who would love nothing more than to run, jump, and play all day long. Our original intention was to put her in obedience school so we could channel that energy into something positive but we got her so young that she wasn’t eligible for the training we wanted her to get and then suddenly we looked up and an entire year had gone by and poor little Cali was becoming a lonely puppy prone to digging holes the size of small cars. Several months ago we brought my parent’s Golden Retriever over to live with Cali and keep her company but as the hospital bills continued to pour in we decided that spending $60 a month on dog food when we are only making minimum payments on our hospital bills just didn’t make sense. A few weeks ago little Cali was adopted by a sweet little family of five looking for a fun-loving puppy to keep their old-timer German shepherd spunky.

I’ll admit, I cried when they drove away with her. Not because I love her or because she is a wonderful dog because she is in fact incredibly hyperactive and annoying (ask anyone who went on the church camping trip last spring). I cried because I had such high hopes for that sweet little dog and felt like giving her away was like giving up on her.

I think the same is true sometimes when God uses us to plant seeds instead of sow them. I can vividly remember how sad I was when we came to the end of a mission trip and I knew that the young woman I was working with was not ready to make a commitment to the Lord. It was physically difficult to leave without seeing her faith journey reach its final destination because I so feared that she would not continue on her journey. Looking back I realize how my arrogance was limiting God and am so thankful that he brought another person into the life of my new friend to sow the seeds that had been previously planted. Oh what a joyful day it was when I opened the mail to find a picture of my sweet friend putting on our Lord in baptism.

What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.
1 Corinthians 3:5-7

Your thoughts?