Just One Seed

  Last spring I found a baggie full of seed that I had saved from my mini hollyhocks that grew along our front sidewalk at our former acreage. They reseed the ground and come up again the next year. A good friend shared the seed with me many years ago. They remind me a bit of my mother's hollyhocks that were much larger, growing head high. 

So even though I thought the seeds might be too old, I planted them all in a little two foot square area and wished for the best. I waited and waited for the seeds to sprout and waited some more. Finally after several good rains I recognized one sprout of the mini hollyhocks. I thought sure there would be more to follow but only one plant began to grow.

I feared bugs would get the little lone plant or that it would just dry up and die in our terrible, hard soil, but it kept growing. I kind of forgot about it this summer so it didn't get any water, still it grew. It was jostled around by the derecho, protected behind a north jutting wall. It grew and grew no matter what the conditions were. 

"Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy. He who goes out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with him," (Psalm 126:5-6 NIV).

This week I remembered the plant and went out to see if it was still growing in spite of near drought conditions Ankeny has been experiencing. There it was, spread all over the area, tangled into the nearby plants. When I tried to move the vines the seeds sprinkled all over the ground and I know next year I will have many of the mini hollyhocks coming up in its own little garden. Even when I could get nothing besides milkweeds to grow there, the hollyhocks persevered.

God is good, so very good.