What Else Might Grow?

“Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God.”
2 Corinthians 9:10–12 NIV

Imagine holding a handful of seeds. You could keep them safely in a jar, where they might remain for years. Or you could plant them, not knowing what might grow. Some may produce nothing. Others may grow into plants bearing far more seeds than you began with. And those seeds could be planted again, perhaps in gardens you will never see. There is something exciting about that possibility. What begins as a small handful may become far more than we could have imagined, but only when the seeds are no longer held in our hands.

The apostle Paul offers a surprising way to think about that handful of seeds. Writing to Christians about generosity, he begins not with what they should give, but with the One who provides it. “Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food…” God provides both what sustains us today and what can be planted for tomorrow. That changes how we might see what is already in our hands. Could some of what we have received be the beginning of something God intends to grow beyond us?

Notice, God not only supplies the seed but promises to “increase your store of seed.” That opens an intriguing possibility. We may discover and experience even more of God's generosity as we share what He has already given us. And Paul makes clear that this is not something we do under pressure, writing that our giving should be “not reluctantly or under compulsion” (2 Corinthians 9:7). Could this become an adventurous experiment of faith, discovering more of God's provision and what He might grow through us as we learn to trust Him?

What begins to grow through us may reach much further than we imagine. Such giving is “not only supplying the needs of the Lord's people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God.” Think of someone receiving help at just the moment it is needed, recognizing God's kindness in something the giver considered quite ordinary. Could that person then extend the same generosity into another life, and perhaps another? Like seeds scattered into new gardens, God's goodness can keep spreading beyond our sight. And seeing what God does through our giving may deepen our own faith to trust Him with even more.

The next seed may not look like a seed at all. It may be time we can spare, something we have learned, or something we are able to share. We may never know how far it travels. But what leaves our hands may be just the beginning of what God will grow, both in the lives it reaches and in our faith to trust Him again and again.

Prayer

Lord Jesus, You have given me more than I understand. Help me trust You with what I have received, and discover the joy of sharing Your goodness, even when I cannot see how far it reaches. Amen.