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Planting Poppies and Other Acts of Faith
by Keri Wyatt Kent
Faith is
the hope of things unseen, the Bible says.
We gardeners know this to be true—we watch
tiny seeds turn into something beautiful. We
have a front row seat to the miracle of
transformation—a patch of mud and dried
leaves becomes a tapestry of flowers and
edibles.
I think faith is not
just hoping, though. It’s acting on that hope. When I
have faith, I walk forward, not knowing what the future
will bring, but acting as if there were a reason to
trust. Because so far, there has been. My life has not
been free of disappointments, certainly. Very few can
claim that—unless they’ve become experts at denial. But
God’s been good. I try to focus on the blessings, and
trust they will continue.
Today, I acted on faith
by planting poppies. It is still winter here in Chicago
(despite the occasional warm day). While it’s way too
early to plant anything else, this is prime planting
time for poppies. The seeds are tiny—just like the poppy
seeds you’d find on a bakery roll. If I hadn’t seen it
happen every year, I’d find it hard to believe that by
late June, those tiny seeds will become bright pink
puffy flowers the size of my fist, blooming on stalks
two feet tall or more.
The seeds were ones I
harvested last year from the plants—I’ve done this for
years, starting with some seeds given me by gardening
mentors.
To plant poppies
requires faith. And action. You simply scatter them on
the soil (in some years, I’ve put them right on top of
snow). The seeds need cold to germinate, so I’m hoping I
haven’t planted too late. Optimally, I should have
planted them last month. But if I leave them in the
plastic bag on the shelf, they’ll never be flowers.
They’ll just be good intentions.
My second act of faith
today was finishing a book proposal and sending it to my
agent. Every time I finish writing a book, as I did a
couple of months ago, the voice of doubt whispers, “you
have nothing left to say. You may have written a few
books, but you probably won’t write another one. Give
up, go apply for a job at Wal-Mart—if you think they’ll
have you.”
The voice of love says,
“use the gifts I’ve given you, and trust.” So I want to
put my faith in the voice of Love, which is God’s voice.
I want to follow God, listen to his voice. So I don’t
just sit back and hope I’ll get another book
contract. I pray, I seek wisdom, I do research. Then I
write the proposal. I self-edit, hone the writing. I
send it to my agent so he can help me make it even
better. I trust, but I also have to act.
Jesus often used seeds
as a picture of the kingdom of heaven. He was not
talking about a someday, somewhere else kingdom, but
rather, a present reality. In Mark 4: 26-32, we read
this about Jesus:
“He also said, ‘This is
what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on
the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up,
the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how.
All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk,
then the head, then the full kernel in the head. As soon
as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because
the harvest has come.’ Again he said, ‘What shall we say
the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use
to describe it? It is like a mustard seed, which is the
smallest of all seeds on earth. Yet when planted, it
grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with
such big branches that the birds can perch in its
shade.’”
Even when it’s still
winter, I trust spring will come. I trust God will
provide, and help the seeds I’m planting to bloom. To
take my small acts of faith, and grow them into
something beautiful.
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