Day Three -- Growth

The third day of creation was the day when God made the plants. this was one of the easiest equivalences to work out, plants are symbolic of growth, and Jesus' own parables are full of plant analogies. The kingdom of heaven, after all, is like the mustard seed that grows into a great tree ..


Not to remain intense, in-turned entire
Not to be static, unresolved and small
Not to remain the thing which I began
But, by becoming, to embrace it all.

I would be whole, I would rise up and sing
Into the morning with a voice made new
I would go forth with laughter into life
I would become and grow, myself outdo.


The seed waits
Dreaming
Imagining a fuller self ..

Maybe a flower, petal-perfect, lovely:
As pure as Eden’s morning in its curve of grace,
As soft as wistfulness, dressed like a jewel ..

Or maybe tree: aspiring, stretching, reaching ..
Shelter and strength and nurturance and shade;
Roots running down to hold the earth in place ..

Or fragrant bush, or fruit, or waving grass,
Resolute cactus or imperial fern …
Seeds have ambitions …

And yet .. ambition cannot make seeds grow,
Nor all self-vaunting effort make one shoot to sprout;
And, while it clings to life, the seed abides alone.

Yet, dare to die, and green and living tendrils rise
Up from the dust of hopes laid down and self laid by;
Mercy, sheer mercy, thrusts forth leaves toward the sky ..

This, reckless then, go down, down to the place
Of all surrender
Let the dew of heaven fall
Let self be changed,
Let Life in all its fullness be
Living in me!