Granny Hat wrote a while ago about how there is “summer in every seed”. She just didn’t realize how much summer! Granny has been mowing and weeding and trimming and watering and mowing and weeding……..; it never ends.
The jolly plant lady down at the Garden Center says you must wait to plant until the snow melts off the mountain peaks right above Granny’s house. That nursery woman is jolly because no one ever listens to her; they plant flowers in late April, but Dame May decides to snow and hail so then they all have to trot back down to the Garden Center to start over with new plants. It’s a win win for the friendly floriculturist, she must be laughing all the way to the bank. Happily, for her, plants don’t come with guarantees or warranties.
Granny Hat loves the lessons she learns from gardening. Starting with seeds; they are dry and dead looking, hard to believe they will ever amount to anything. When we bury them under the soil, they are out of sight but never out of mind. Waiting for them to grow requires patience and hope. And a little worry, truth be told. Will they really ever sprout? Are they getting enough water? Perhaps too much water? The promise of a living organism demands warmth, water, nutrients and TLC. So, the gardener mists, sets the sod pots in one sunny window then another, always watching and counting the days. When the bursts of green finally stretch toward the sun, there is such sweet joy. There was life in that dead- looking seed after all, created to thrive, drink up the light.
In the Northern Rockies Spring may be sneaky but Summer is SUDDEN. Granny Hat never understood the story of Jack and the Beanstalk until she moved to a Suddenly Summer climate. She can literally watch the grass grow and when she closes her eyes, she is sure to hear the vines creep along the fence. The garlic that sprouted through the snow in March, then just stood there patiently in the wind and the rain suddenly sprouted “scapes” over night!
Flowers love the extreme long days. The sun goes down near 10 pm but the sky stays light until 10:45. The growing season is short, but the plants know how to make up for lost time. They were created to grow.
Back in Sneaky Spring, Granny decided to celebrate seed-starting season by teaching kids in Joyful Noise Sunday School the time-honored Dan Wittenmore song, Little Bitty Seeds. It is a favorite with the children because it has crazy-fun motions and tells the Parable of the Sower from the Gospels. Granny introduced the song around Easter time as little, round, hard millet seeds were sown in Resurrection Gardens. The kids got busy sprinkling way too much millet which sprouted into a jungle of very tall grass in just two weeks. So much beautiful green life in the tiniest of seeds!
“The Word of God is like little bitty seeds, scattered all around. The Word of God is like little bitty seeds, scattered all around. Some on the road, some in the weeds,
but everywhere you look you find little bitty seeds.
The Word of God is like little bitty seeds, scattered all around.”
What a beautiful way to describe the Word of God, seeds that can be scattered, broadcasted and shared. It has also been described as “a lamp unto our feet”, “the bread of life”, “sweeter than honey in the honeycomb”, “living and active” & “became flesh and dwelt among us”. In other words, the Word of God is alive! It moves, grows, changes hearts. And who doesn’t like bread and honey?
“I want the Word to grow in my heart like seed on fertile ground. I want the Word to grow in my heart like seed on fertile ground. Watered by the Spirit, touched by the Son and living like I should til the harvest comes. I want the Word to grow in my heart like seed on fertile ground.”
Granny Hat loves the joy on the kids’ faces when they sing about those little bitty seeds. She hopes and prays they will have fertile hearts, grow to love the Word of God, to listen to it, learn from it and be changed. May they grow up convicted that what God creates is a promise, that life is sacred and that seeds buried in the ground are waiting to sprout and thrive. Suddenly Summer!
“Sing them over again to me, wonderful words of life,
Let me more of their beauty see, wonderful words of life,…
Beautiful words, wonderful words, wonderful words of life.” Philip P. Bliss
From Granny’s heart:
Granny Hat was 14 years old when the Roe v Wade decision was passed by the United States Supreme Court on January 22, 1973. (now you know how old she is!) She doesn’t remember people talking about it, the issue was all hush-hush. Granny was an adult before she learned just how lucrative and pervasive the abortion industry is.
Granny was privileged to work at a pregnancy center which offered free pregnancy tests, ultrasounds, STD testing and pre-natal counseling for families. The staff offered alternatives to Planned Parenthood’s appalling remedy for pregnancy.
Granny Hat especially loved the Walk for Life Rally in San Francisco and the local ones sponsored by the HPC. She heard Abby Johnson (And Then There Were None, https://abbj.com) and Shawn Carney ( 40daysforlife.com) speak and was inspired by the courage of these intelligent pro-life advocates. It was moving when thousands of people bowed their heads in prayer, begging God to turn the tide, to put the promise of life on our nation’s heart and bring an end to the infanticide.
We will have to wait for heaven for all things to be made right, every tear wiped away. Here on earth there is still much ground to cover but Granny Hat is celebrating with deep gratitude for the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v Wade on June 24, 2022. What a wonderful Suddenly Summer thing to happen in our country!
She thinks we should still memorialize January 22 as a Day of Remembrance for the hundreds of thousands of babies whose lives were taken. And now there is a new day to celebrate – June 24! A day to stand up and boldly proclaim that life is a gift from God, a sacred promise. A day to purpose to meet needs in our community that arise from desperate circumstances. A day to:
“Speak life, speak life to the deadest darkest night.
Speak life, speak life when the sun won’t shine and you don’t know why, Look into the eyes of the broken hearted,
Watch them come alive as soon as you speak hope,
You speak love, you speak life.” (Toby Mac)