What are we planting?

I know a young woman and her husband who spent a year living with her parents before starting grad school. The young couple loved watching things grow. However, they were in the middle of the desert—not exactly prime gardening land. One of the few plants they managed to cultivate was a cluster of native poppies. Their hearts were happy when a few orange blossoms unfolded under the early summer sun. It was something beautiful, even if it was something small.

That fall, the woman and her husband moved away. Winter came, and then spring arrived. When the woman’s parents started getting their backyard ready for gardening, they noticed half a dozen plants growing. They were poppies! The seeds from the original small flowers had scattered and grown.

Before too long, a row of cheerful orange flowers lined the porch area, glistening smooth and bright against the desert sky. Even though the young woman and her husband had moved away, what they had left behind had multiplied into an even more beautiful offering.

Each of us has the opportunity, the power, to plant seeds of one kind or another as we go throughout our days. When we interact with other people, do we sow seeds of kindness? Do we plant encouragement? Do we scatter friendship? What will bloom after we leave—blossoms of hope, or weeds of sadness and self-doubt?

It’s easy and heartening to plant something in rich, fertile ground. Similarly, it’s easy to be kind to nice people when life is good. But are we willing to try and cultivate something in tough, desert soil, like the young woman and her husband did? Are we still willing to try and bless others when they are harder to reach, or when times are tough?

Like the poppies, the results of our kindness may not be obvious at first. But in time, who knows what will blossom!
Who has "planted" something beautiful in your life? I'd love to hear the story!