Fits, Starts, and Sudden Growth

The last time I wrote, I was excited about a sprout that had burst out of the center of the seed. That sprout stopped growing and shriveled. But then another little sprout showed itself and raced up to the top of the seed. But it then, too, stopped growing. In all, 6 little shoots came up, reached level with the top of the seed, and then stopped growing.

I began to be suspicious that the seed was suffering from not being in the sun. Quite by chance, I was moving some things around and scooted my tree over close to my african violet, which does extraordinarily well on my desk. Would you know it that the 6th sprout of the avocado grew right up to the edge of the seed, AND KEPT GOING! It was quite exciting, at least to me.

Now I have witnessed what in plant terms is explosive growth in two weeks' time. I'm going to post a few pictures when I get them off of my camera phone, but that 6th sprout is now at least 6 inches above the seed, and has 4 leaves popping out the top! The first 5 sprouts are still there, shriveled, but I think still alive. As No. 6 was taking off, I could almost swear there were a couple of days where I thought I could see it growing up. It was showing 1/2" growth every day! I have no idea what made it go crazy all of a sudden, unless it was the proximity to the african violet, or that the move put it a little closer to the sunlight. It would probably love the window sill. I wish I could put it there.

There is an application to this. We make many efforts to be good or right, only to see them shrivel and we fall back into some habit or behavior that is damaging to ourselves or others. It is only when we move closer to the Son (Jesus) that we begin to see growth. We cannot make ourselves good. No matter how hard we try, we can never be good enough to truly please God or become eligible for heaven. It's only when we let Jesus live through us that we can see change and growth. Easy to say, difficult to live out.

This makes me think of a verse in the Bible that I will share with you as I close this entry. It is paradoxical but essential. Luke 9:24 says, "For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me [Jesus] will save it."