Imagine that I promised to bring you a slice of warm pumpkin pie, fresh from the oven. It’s your favorite dessert so I tell you I’ll even add a dollop of ice cream on the side. While I’m in the kitchen you smell the spices and anticipate their flavors on your tongue, but when I bring you a plate there’s no pie on it. Instead, there’s only a pile of dry pumpkin seeds.
That’s what I served up to my readers last night. I published this week’s blog post before it was ready, just a few lines to remind me of what I planned to put together in the morning. Then I published it by mistake, a few dry seeds that didn’t deliver what I’d promised.
It wasn’t fun
I started the post on my cell phone, then pushed the PUBLISH button instead of the SAVE DRAFT button. See Blog Post Draft 1. I could try to correct my mistake by deleting it from my website, but I can’t take back the emails that went out to my subscribers. The only answer is to leave it as an illustration for today’s post.
God made seeds to grow
Last year I had a “come get a free pumpkin” postcard from a local farm. I liked the idea of free food so I cut the pumpkin open, throwing its skin and seeds into the garden for compost. I gave away one of the pies I made and enjoyed the other with my husband.
This summer I found a volunteer pumpkin plant spreading its arms toward the raspberry vines. I hadn’t planned on that, and I certainly didn’t intentionally plant the seed, but I now have a new pumpkin to process into pies.
Great things come from little things
I think it’s remarkable that God made the earth to be fruitful. There’s always a season of growth, new life popping up. He promised that would be true as long as the earth remains.
We shouldn’t be discouraged or embarrassed by our dry little seeds, like the draft I accidentally published. The inconsequential things may grow into something of great value like an ingredient for a delicious pie or writing that encourages the heart.
“As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease” (Genesis 8:22 NIV).
My Mom brought me another free pumpkin postcard this week. I’ll toss the innards in the garden again this year and watch what happens.
by Kathy Sheldon Davis
kathysheldondavis.com 
I’m glad you sometimes make mistakes, Kathy, and let us know so we can join in with the fun. As for me, if the mistakes I’ve made were hot dogs, you could wolf down a Wrigley Field full of them on a Saturday night, and still have some left over for breakfast.
It’s got to be OK to bumble around a little bit, right?
Maybe I need to write shorter, telegram-like posts from now on. Uh, no, that’s not going to happen.
I do think it would be good to pare my thoughts down a bit, however.
Kathy, I think we all have funny moments like that. The abbreviated version read like a telegram. That’s the 21st century way – like short 140-character tweets. I love the idea of seeds that grow serendipitously by way of the Holy Spirit’s intents. I pray we all sow into Christ’s earth with hearts of grace like yours.
Kathy, I laughed at this…and totally understood.