Acorns

Fall is coming.
You can feel it in the chilly mornings…and the crisp evenings.
You can see it in the hint of color ready to explode from the trees.
You can detect the difference in the behavior of the animals.
The honking of the geese…the reckless activity of the deer as mating season begins.
The squirrels scurrying around, gathering their cache of food for the winter.

Fall is the season of acorns.
I see the acorns scattered on the road as I walk in the morning.
Such a unique shape…with their own little cap on the top.

The acorn is the nut of an oak tree and usually has only one seed inside.
Some birds feed on acorns, but also small mammals such as mice and squirrels.
Acorns are rich in nutrients, but they also have bitter tannins that are leached out when there is enough groundwater to soak them.

Did you ever think bout how remarkable an acorn is?
Hard shell…one seed inside.
Acorns are too heavy to be carried by the wind.
There must be some other way of transporting them so that they may germinate elsewhere…and produce more oak trees.

That is where the squirrel comes in.
The squirrel that we see scurrying across the road with an acorn in its mouth.
I have read that a squirrel is a seed dispersal agent.
A very fancy term for a planter of the seed.

The cache of acorns that a squirrel has buried is not the only cache.
There may be quite a few places where the acorns are hidden.
God has given squirrels an internal mapping system to find their cache.
Sometimes, they do not get back to all the places to retrieve what they stored there.

Squirrels have planted the acorns so efficiently.
The acorns have the perfect conditions to germinate and grow into new trees.

One seed…the right conditions…a potential forest of growth.

A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds of the air ate it up. Some fell on rock, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture. Other seed fell among the thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown. (Luke 8:5-8)

One seed…the right conditions…a harvest of growth.

The seed is the Word of God. Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. Those on the rock are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away. The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life’s worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature. But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering, produce a crop. (Luke 8:12-15)

We are God’s seed dispersal agents.
We are to scatter the seed of His Word as we go about our day.
The more we study His Word, the larger the cache of seed that must be scattered.
The right conditions…allowing the water of His Word to soak in…produces a bountiful harvest, as He so desires.

In the first century, when Jesus told the parable of the sower, farming techniques were vastly different from the way we do things now.
Today, the fields are plowed and prepared first…then the seed is scattered.
In the first century, sowing came first…then plowing.
Seed was scattered on all types of soil, knowing that the ground would soon be overturned.
Some of the seed would take root…some would not.

As God’s seed dispersal agents, we are to scatter the seed of His Word.
The growth is not in our hands.
The growth is in His Hands.
In fact, the growth happens automatically.
Even the seed scatter-er doesn’t know exactly how it happened.

That is how is should be!
Otherwise, we would take the credit for any growth.
Imagine if a squirrel took credit for the oak trees we see standing today.
Imagine him pointing to a tree and saying, See…I stored my cache right there.

It doesn’t work like that.
God gets the glory for the oak tree…just as much as He gets the glory for the acorn.

Inside the tiny acorn is a mighty oak.
Inside the seed that we scatter is the Gospel…God’s plan of redemption.
What potential for growth!

Seed dispersal agents.
What an incredible, magnificent calling.
Let’s start scattering.