Looking at things from a corn seed's perspective can be extremely confusing.
Yes. I just said that. Bear with me here.
Today I was passing by the corn fields on the way home from work, and I noticed that one of them has been harvested now. The family has enjoyed remarking on how much it has grown as we have watched it from seedling to full grown stalks.
We start with the seed. The seed is thrown down on plowed ground, water or rain is added. The seed knows what to do. We as seeds know, we are going to germinate, we are going to grow. We are going to be a stalk some day.
We seeds ride out the storms. The lonely nights. The hot days. We seeds conserve the right amount of moisture to get us through the hot days and the dry days.
We see the goal and we go for it. All of our energy is focused on the end result. We are going to be an enormous stalk with ears of corn! This is what we were meant for!
As the days get a bit shorter, we look from our fields and see the leaves in the trees beginning to change colors!
We've done it! Look at us! We started as seeds but now we are full fledged stalks of corn! Look how tall we are! We are standing victorious!
But then one day, we hear a new sound in the field. It sounds like machinery?
Our seed minds don't have time to know what to think before the combine comes over us, striking our stalk and throwing us through the chute.
But wait! We as seeds have done everything we are supposed to do! We grew! We stretched! We conserved!
This can't be right! Why is this happening to us!?
This can't be God's plan for us?! We did everything we were designed to do! Why are we being punished? What did we do wrong?
And so it is with us as people. We don't see the big picture. Some of it, we can see in the past. But the Big God picture we will never understand in this life.
We as seeds don't even realize, we are a nutritious food! For man and animals! We as seeds don't see that our kind, is made into hundreds of products that help countless others in the world! Paper products, fuel, food, tires, drywall, spark plugs, instant coffee and tea, and this is just the tip of the iceberg.
We as seeds do not see this whole other world out there for us. All we see is our confusion, whoa, and heartache.
SO it is with us. We can only see and feel where we are. Having faith in God is having faith that there is a whole other world out there for us. There is a huge big picture that we don't understand or see.
Having faith in God is being bold enough to say that I do not have all the answers. I don't know why God chooses for good people to die young. I don't know why people in our world are starving to death. People in our world are killing each other based on religious beliefs. There are still places in this world with no clean water. There is much pain and suffering here, in this time.
My faith tells me that all of these things are leading towards a whole other realm that we do not see or understand yet. There is so much more to the story of God's Redemption of the earth.
I Am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life
“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.”
(John 14:1-4 ESV)
