Keep Planting and Watering Those Tiny Seeds
This past Tuesday was March 1, which is a special anniversary for Ray and me. Forty-eight years ago, I got dressed in an green gauze shirt and beige and green striped stovepipe pants and waited for Ray Notgrass to pick me up for dinner and a movie in Nashville. Soon Ray arrived at the house where I was renting a room in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, while I was a student at Middle Tennessee State University. I don’t remember the rest of his outfit that night, but I do remember that he wore beige and navy blue saddle oxfords on this special evening, our first date. Okay, so it was the 70s!
Several days ago, our daughter Mary Evelyn invited me to accompany her and her children on an ice skating outing a couple of hours away in Knoxville, Tennessee. The rink has limited open skating time slots, and Tuesday, March 1, was the best option. Our children know how special March 1 is to us, so Mary Evelyn let me know from the beginning that she would understand if I couldn’t come. I talked to Ray, and we both agreed that I should go and we could celebrate that evening.
We had a wonderful day, which included the ice skating and a great visit with my cousin Tina on our way home. One of Tina’s pet cockatoos took quite a liking to me, though it took me a little while to return the affection.
That visit turned out so good, that Mary Evelyn pulled into our driveway to let me off almost an hour and a half later than we had planned. In the early evening darkness, Ray came out to help me carry in the picture books and puppets and things I had brought along. As I stood in the doorway of their minivan, hugging grandchildren goodbye, I thought, “What a wonderful way to celebrate March 1.” On March 1, 1974, we were two young adults going out on a first date. We had no idea then what God would create from that small beginning. Now, when we have whole family gatherings, three children and their spouses and nine grandchildren join us around our table. We had no inkling whatsoever of Notgrass History or of the many, many new friends who would bless our lives over the next 48 years.
Ray and I went inside. After doing the this and that which we needed to do to finish up the day’s tasks, we sat down and snapped this selfie.
We celebrated with dinner—not at Ireland’s restaurant as we did in 1974, but yummy leftovers in our library—and a movie—not in a theater as we did way back when, but on the loveseat where we watch Mr. Rogers with our grandchildren. We watched “Mr. Deeds Goes to Town,” which again warmed our hearts and reminded us of what is most important—not wealth and status and power, but kindness and generosity and being your own person, even if other people think you are crazy.
Praise God for what He can do—and does—with the tiniest little seeds. Keep planting and watering and see what God will do with the seeds you plant in your children today.
And [Jesus] was saying,
“The kingdom of God is like a man who casts seed upon the soil;
and he goes to bed at night and gets up daily,
and the seed sprouts and grows—how, he himself does not know.
The soil produces crops by itself; first the stalk,
then the head, then the mature grain in the head.
Now when the crop permits,
he immediately puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”
Mark 4:26-29
