Recently, I was in the parking lot at the grocery store and show what seemed out of place. A single stalk of corn was growing from the blacktop and asphalt landscape. While the parking lot was not immediately adjacent to the highway, I surmised that a single grain of corn must have jettisoned from a passing feed truck, and found its way into the tiny piece of land between the asphalt and the concrete base of the light pole. And here in this uncomfortable and hard environment, the seed had just enough to grow. But here is the most amazing part – a month later it was still there; standing tall and proud as if to say, “see, I’m still here.”

Seeing that single plant reminded me of a story told by a member of one of my God’s Farm Bible studies – a story I included in my book. The memory is shared as follows:

When my boys were little, there was a corn plant that grew next to the mailbox. We didn’t know how it got there . But it stood all by itself. The mailman commented on it. The neighbors comments on it. One day, my little boy, Scotty, said.” It’s mine, Momma”. “I put it there. I planted it near the mailbox”. So we made a sign that said, “Scotty’s Corn” and , don’t you know, that one stalk actually even grew some ears of corn. Goes to show if  you plant a seed, it doesn’t matter where, growth can happen.”

In this COVID-19 pandemic, our focus often seems to bounce between our corner of the world and the overwhelming global scope of change the pandemic has initiated. Add in the tumultuous tide of our nation’s current political scene and you have winds of change that blow us from one place to the next. Winds of a “new normal” that at times will land us on uncomfortable and hard environments. Environments that demand our attention. Environments that instinctively we want to push back against but to no avail. And yet in the crevice between the asphalt of attitudes and concrete of miscommunication, there will always be a crevice in which God can grow a seed. A gospel seed of hope and peace. A gospel seed that can thrive in the small forgotten places. A seed that can bring life – but only if we are willing to die to self and our “perfect” situation and allow God to be God.

Isaiah 55:8-11 from Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase The Message reminds us of this same hope:

“I don’t think the way you think.
    The way you work isn’t the way I work.”
        God’s Decree.
“For as the sky soars high above earth,
    so the way I work surpasses the way you work,
    and the way I think is beyond the way you think.
Just as rain and snow descend from the skies
    and don’t go back until they’ve watered the earth,
Doing their work of making things grow and blossom,
    producing seed for farmers and food for the hungry,
So will the words that come out of my mouth
    not come back empty-handed.
They’ll do the work I sent them to do,
    they’ll complete the assignment I gave them.

We are called to bloom where we are planted, even if between a rock and a hard place. Because the gospel message of grace and love offers life Christ alone can give. Even in a pandemic, when church doors are closed, the gospel is not lost – it is simply jettisoned into a new, maybe unfamiliar landscape. Yet especially in this harvest season, don’t overlook the seed that went astray. Sometimes, it is exactly where it needs to be to offer hope for a weary soul.

Rebecca Collison. Preparing Fields For Seasons of Change. Trilogy Christian Publishers. Tustin, CA. 2020. 69.