3 minute read
About 200 years ago, British horticulturalist and botanist Thomas Andrew Knight wanted to know what would happen if you planted a handful of seeds in the ground, but placed them in upside down. He knew that when you planted seeds, they had an uncanny ability to always know which way “up” was and so they’d shoot their roots out of the seed down and the plant up toward the sun. But what if the seeds were planted upside down?
So, he did just that. He planted a bunch of seeds upside down.
You might think that if a seed’s in the ground, upside down, when the little plant cracks through the seedling case, it’ll be confused and just grow straight down, down, down.
And, in so doing, never get the sunlight it needs, so it dies down there in the dark.
But that’s not what Knight observed.
Yes, the plant grows downward—away from the light—but only for a short period of time.
It’s like something inside the plant senses the direction of the goodness—sunlight and maybe rain—is and it jerks its internal wheel, doing a U-turn so it can grow up, up, up.
If you were to just take a photo of those first days of growth, though—the days when the plant is growing downwards—you’d think all was lost. Nothing good is going to come of this seed. Because it’s headed in the wrong direction, it’s doomed.
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I’m currently in a season of growth. I really believe God’s wanting to grow some good things in me, right here, right now.
He wants me free from some not-great ways of thinking about myself and impossibly high expectations I keep placing on yours truly. It’s resulting in subtle forms of self-destruction, disappointment, and condemning thoughts.
God loves me as I am, but He also loves me too much to let me stay this way.
So, He’s working in me, reorienting me, pruning the bad so the good can grow.
But here’s the thing—I’m not seeing anything good come of this yet.
I’m putting in time, putting in effort, focusing on Him, asking Him for freedom, but…
Zilch. Nada. Nothing.
And that’s hard for me.
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But maybe there’s something for me in Thomas Andrew Knight’s little seed experiment.
Maybe my thought patterns—how I see myself and God and the world around me—are set so cattywampus, that I’m a bit… upside down.
And because my thinking is upside down, maybe the plant that’s growing—the good things God has for me that includes freedom, grace, and hope—is growing… it’s just growing downward, first.
Maybe my frustration stems from me looking at the current state, seeing “downward growth” and thinking, “It’s not going to live. The goodness I crave isn’t going to make it.”
But maybe I need to hold out a bit more hope.
Maybe I need to recognize that though things look like they’re headed in the wrong direction, they need to go that way for a bit, before they start heading in the right direction.
Maybe the growth God has for me has to go down… before it can go up… up beyond the surface of the soil, into the air, into the light, showing itself for the good growth God’s wanted it to be.
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What’s God growing in you today? Are you seeing results? If not, maybe things are having to grow in a different direction before they evidence themselves to you.
Can I encourage you to keep hoping? Can I encourage myself to?
And can I just say that even though, in this season, all may seem lost to you… they’re not lost to God. He knows just what direction that seedling is growing in… and He knows just when to turn it up… up… up.