Prolific Seeds

Wednesday, January 21st
Prolific Seeds
By Nicole Goddard

A few years ago I started planting cut flower varieties on the edges of our garden. There is something so whimsical and beautiful about clipping fresh flowers on a summer morning while all the butterflies and pollinators buzz around you.

In the interest of filling out my bouquets, I choose to plant Celosia as an easy to grow vibrant, perennial – google them!  What I didn’t realize was that within those pretty feathery plumes is approximately 1 gazillion seeds! And as a result every season since, we have been plagued by hundreds – and I mean HUNDREDS – of Celosia shoots popping up alllll over the garden! The harder we try to eradicate it, the further it seems to spread!
Those Celosia seeds remind me of the early Christians in today’s Messiah reading,
A great wave of persecution began that day, sweeping over the church in Jerusalem; and all the believers except the apostles were scattered through the regions of Judea and Samaria. Acts 8:1, Messiah pg. 74

Stephen’s martyrdom struck grave fear in the early church as both the Roman Empires and Jewish leaders violently cracked down on their freedoms and livelihoods. They fled their homes and traveled to distance regions all to pursue religious freedom.
Luke also introduces us to Saul the passionate Pharisee absolutely devoted to destroying Christians, willing to travel over a 100 miles one way from Jerusalem to Damascus, to track down and arrest fleeing Christians.

But God.

God used the dispersing of his believers to light a fire across the regions. The Gospel spread near and far, driving out spirts, converting sorcerers and healing so many broken souls. These attempts to eradicate the early Christians only spread the church further and ultimately changed the story of the most aggressive persecutor of them all!