The Sower’s Dream

Once upon a time, there was a plant nursery called Sam’s. Now Sam’s sold all sorts of a variety of seeds. There were seeds for flowers, herbs, vegetables, and trees. About any kind of seed imaginable could be found at Sam’s nursery. Well, with all these seeds just hanging around, there was the usual idle chit-chat about evening plans and so forth.

The gang was all there. There was Rose, Cucumber, Carrot, Lavender, Oaky, Maple, and Petunia. These seeds represented the younger generation, like teenagers — a little rambunctious for my taste, but what do I know? I’m just the narrator.

As the story goes, the whole gang was sitting at the table discussing their evening plans. When the conversation turned to, well umm… the conversation turned to seed religion. This young group of seeds enjoyed sparring one another to evoke stimulating conversation.

Rose started in by saying, “Yesterday in church, there was a fabulous sermon on the afterlife. You know, what lies beyond us after we die. It was an amazing picture of the beauty we will experience after we die. A life full of color and wonder never, ever imagined before.”

Cucumber abruptly cut her off.

“Now Rose, you know the pastor at that church is a little on the deep end, don’t you? He’s always trying to convince you that there is a better life in the afterworld. But I say there is no afterworld. We live and we die, and that’s all there is to it. No afterlife.”

But Rose wouldn’t back down.

She continued, “And there will be a Sower, who chooses those of us who believe to spend an eternity with him in a wonder-filled world. This Sower is a being who has the ability to shape and nurture us to be more than we are at this moment. Someone who cares for our every need and will never leave us alone but stands guard and watches over our well being.”

Oaky chimed in, “I have heard of such a being, but I have never seen anyone or anything like that at Sam’s. It’s just really hard to put faith into something not tangible, not proven by science, you know?”

Then Carrot said, “Well, I can see clearly we are heading towards an impasse. Do we really need to argue about this now?”

Rose said, “This is an important issue. If you don’t make a decision now, will you ever make time to contemplate your decision at a later time?”

Maple had no words to say. He was a little embarrassed about the whole conversation.

Lavender and Petunia agreed to table this conversation to another date, as they said, “A decision like this needs time to sink in. I don’t want to make my life decision on the spur of the moment. I want to take time to ponder what the Sower means to me if he really does exist.”

Rose concurred with her friends. She loved her friends, but she knew that this not the time to push the issue. Yet, she would not relent about bringing her views to her group.

But, what about you? As you’re eavesdropping into the seeds’ conversation, do you really believe that these seeds will become no more than just seeds? Is there is a remote possibility that they will develop into something greater than themselves? Is the Sower just a fairytale myth? As the narrator, I will stand neutral in these questions, but I think these questions are worth the pondering.