We enjoy the petite little crimson, star-shaped blossoms of the cypress vine. We have some along the dog pen fence and going up some strings at the back of the house and behind a rose bush at the front corner of the house. During the recent dry spell Barb cleaned the dry vines off the area behind the rose bush at the front corner of the house. Yesterday I walked by there and saw the trail of where she took the vines down and drug them off to one side. That trail was indicated by little green sprouts of cypress vines coming up through the grass. Those seeds have been there during the dry spell, just lying there down in the brown grass. Now, since we have had a rain shower, they have sprouted to create the “trail” of where the vines were taken down and pulled off to one side. It was only a day or two after the rain shower that those seeds sprouted. It is like “suddenly” they all came up. When I worked as a landscaper at OBU, I operated the green house. I would grow many of the flowers from seed that I planted on campus. With the conditions just right, with proper moisture, temperature and light, some seeds would pop up in two or three days, seemingly overnight. Other seeds required a week or two. Some seeds require several weeks, and seeds of some things such as avocado can take months (I did not try to grow avocados to plant on campus). Different types of seeds with different conditions makes for different times that they germinate. In the Bible, the Word of God is called a seed. When that seed is sown into people’s lives, some seeds fall by the way side and never germinate, some seeds fall in rocky areas with shallow soil and start out good but never continues to grow, and some seeds fall in ground and grow, but weeds choke it out and it becomes unfruitful or dies. When the Word falls into good ground, into ground where it is understood and all the spiritual conditions are right, the seed germinates, grows and becomes fruitful at one level or another. Many factors are involved in the seed, in the Word of God, taking effect in people’s lives. The Word of forgiveness, of healing, of the fulness of the Spirit, of deliverance from mental and demonic oppression—all these seeds of the Word sown into our own life or other people’s lives have their effect at different times according to different conditions. By trusting God, and through love, patience, and believing prayer, we can “water” the seed and bring the warmth of “Son light” that will bring about germination and growth. We don’t try to force the seed to germinate and grow. We just provide the right conditions, and the life that is in the seed will come forth. Sow the seed, and with prayer, praise, love and patience, trust God.