Seeds

A seed bank on a remote Norwegian island in the Arctic Ocean opened in February, creating a repository of more than 100 million seeds representing every major food crop on Earth. The Svalbard Seed Vault contains seed samples from 268,000 plants.

The bank consists of three secure rooms at the end of a 400 foot tunnel blasted out of the mountain. The seeds are sealed in four-ply foil pouches, and then sealed in marked boxes.

It’s been called a “Noah’s ark” for plant genetics. At four degrees below zero, it will preserve the thousands of regional and local crop varieties farmers worldwide have bred for thousands of years. The seeds may be viable for 1,000 years.

This caused me to think about my life. What kind of seeds am I hiding away? As I store them in my children, in my home, in my workplace, they will one day germinate. Will they be seeds of righteousness, or seeds of sin? Will they be seeds of hope, or seeds of doubt?

When we look at our lives and our current troubles, are they simply harvests of seeds that we have sown many years ago? Are we living out the natural consequence of our past? I’m not proud of some of the seeds already planted in the vault of my life, but I vow as a Red Letter Believer to begin to sow those that are right and good and just.

Together, with other like-minded believers, we will plant a new crop and change our world.

“Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary”
— Gal 6:9

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