Butternut Babies! (A gardening "object lesson")

Day after day, week after week...coddling, watering, coaxing...it seemed like it was taking forever to see any sign of impending squash-hood!   Then, a few days ago, I found this!  My first "butternut baby"!

(This kind of squash isn't well-known here at all, and when our supermarket suddenly had some for sale, the cashiers would say, "You're the only one who buys them.  What do you do with them?")  It had been years since I'd seen them for sale, and not knowing when they might appear again, I decided to plant some, and see if I could get them to grow here in the thinner, colder mountain air.  

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 Most of the plants sport large, wide leaves, and have vines snaking out from their centers.  Cute little tendrils grace the vines.  As I add fertilizer and water, I see them expand and develop...and now start the process of actually producing fruit.

I said most of the plants.  All except this one. It's been around as long as the others.  It hasn't died...but it hasn't grown.  What an object lesson!

Looking at this poor little non-starter (or "non-continuer") I thought, "Just like some believers.  They're not 'dead'...but they don't grow!"

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The Bible uses numerous references to plants as allegories and illustrations.  For example: 

"I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow.  So neither the one who plants  nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes everything grow."  (I Corinthians 3:6-7) 

 We can - we should! - share the Good News and encourage others (plant and water)...but it is the Holy Spirit who actually brings a new spiritual "sprout", a new believer, into the Kingdom.  (My plants need me to water and feed them, but baby butternuts are birthed from the God-created core of the plants themselves.)
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Here's another great verse:

"For as the soil brings forth its sprouts, and as a garden causes what is sown to sprout up, so the Lord will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all nations."  (Isaiah 62:11)

And one of the most splendid promises from God's heart to ours, where He says He will...

                                 "provide for those who grieve in Zion - 
                        to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes,
                                  the oil of joy instead of mourning, 
                           and a spirit of praise instead of a spirit of despair. 
                  They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord, 
                                             that He may be glorified."    (Isaiah 61:3)
                     
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       Father, your love is amazing!  As your oaks...let us display your splendor!
                                                     
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