A garden of misfit seeds?

A garden of misfit seeds?

Patricia Ann, originally posted on Tuesday, February 10, 2015 3:55 PM

The garden of misfit seeds?

The seed was blowing through the wind before it landed.
This  seed was originally  intended to be a part of a most beautiful garden. In fact, this seed was  specifically chosen by the gardener for a particular spot in his garden.  This seed was a flower.  It wasn’t just any flower, but a most beautiful specimen, created for its beauty and for the love that others would feel deep inside when they would encounter it in the garden.  The garden was created by an authority in gardening.  In fact he had been responsible for beauty seen in many places all over the world.  So, to be a flower planted in this garden would indeed be a glorious life.  This garden was special in that it never contained seeds that were annual, lasting just a year, only to be replaced with another the following year.  The seeds planted in this garden would be allowed to firmly root and remain year after year becoming stronger and more beautiful as time goes by.
This particular flower seed, however, missed its destination in the garden.  A fierce wind blew over the garden one day and as this tiny seed was about to be covered with soil so that it could begin to root, the sudden strong wind picked it up from the ground and began twisting it and spinning it around in the air.  It remained aloft in the wind, twisting and turning, going up and down almost to the ground and then lifted way up high.  Then as fast as it was picked up, it was dropped. 
There it was.  This tiny seed was far away from its intended destination.  The soil this seed landed on was hard.  It looked as if nothing had or would ever grow on it.  The tiny seed was apparently very out of place among the small pebbles and clods of dirt surrounding it.  This certainly was not or could ever be a garden! This beautiful flower would never be allowed to root and grow into the beautiful flower that it was intended to be.  
Or could it? 
The seed laid there on that barren ground.  Seasons passed. Summer, fall, a very cold winter and then spring came. 
Summer, fall, winter and yet another spring arrived and the seed lay there still, untouched.  It was helpless.  There seemed to be no gardener for this spot of land.  In this barren location there seemed no hope, no future.  This place would surely never be beautiful.
One day, however, someone came into this barren location with a rake and a shovel.  The barren land seemed even more barren as the dirt clods and rocks were removed leaving a perfectly clean bare piece of land.  
The seed was moved around as the rake would crash down upon it, pulling it forward and then backwards and then forward again.  Finally, the tiny seed ended up laying in a pile of loose dirt at the edge of the barren ground. Surely nothing would ever become of the seed now. 
Would it remain in that dirt pile forever? 
It could have for sure. 
As the tiny seed lay in in that pile of dirt, all scraped and bruised from seasons of laying on barren ground and battered around by a rake and pushed into a pile, that very first gardener had come along, purchased the barren ground and chosen to create yet another wonderful garden. It was to be filled with beautiful flowers for people to share in the beauty and love which they held within. 
Remember, this gardener was an authority in gardening and he knew seeds of every kind.  He also knew that sometimes seeds would be picked up by a fierce winds and blown away to a new destination.  And in knowing that, this gardener always took extra special time to sift through the pile of topsoil just to see if there was a seed that had come up missing from one of his gardens. 
And oh, how glorious it was on the day that the gardener began sifting the soil and his eyes discovered this tiny seed.  He recognized it, you know.  He knew it was that very special seed from seasons before that had been picked up and violently carried away in the wind. 
Oh, what joy the gardener had as he placed this tiny seed in a freshly tilled square garden of loosely fertilized soil and gave it a drink of water.  Oh, how this tiny seed had thirsted for a drink. How it desired to have life. It was so aware of the beauty it contained, but was so unable to make it grow on its own. 
Within a short time, the tiny seed began to grow and as its first bit of green popped through the soil it felt the warmth of the sun for the very first time. Every day after that as the gardener came to fertilize and water the flowers in the garden, this flower raised up its head higher and higher to the sunshine.
One day, when the gardener came to care for his garden, he found that his flower had bloomed. It was the most beautiful and fragrant flower in the garden, rich in color and form.  Each petal displayed an array of richness that could only come from the love it received from the gentleness of the one who planted it. As the flower stood there in all its beauty, the gardener looked around at his newly formed garden and was pleased. 
You see, in this garden, the gardener used only those seeds that he and found in the pile of loose topsoil. 
It wasn’t a garden of misfit seeds, but a flower garden chosen by the creator to bloom more beautifully than the rest.  As each seed had lay dormant in a barren land, once picked up and cared for by the gardener each one became firmly rooted and stands there still, sharing a beauty and love with each of the other flowers in the garden. Each flower is an example of the compassion and unconditional love of the gardener that took the time to sift, plant and nurture what other gardeners would never take the time to see. 
There is no such thing as a misfit seed, or a misfit child of God.  We are all loved and as our creator and our Father in Heaven, it is His desire to pick us up,  plant us firmly in His love and nurture us in that love which allows us to grow deeper and more firmly rooted in Him. 
It is glorious to live as a flower in His garden, as a child in His world, as one who can share His beauty with the world in our daily living.  May we all bloom in His glory and love.  Praise be to our Father who is the creator of all things good and wonderful!