Seeds of inspiration
There are some seeds that take weeks, or even months, to germinate and grow. But what about a type of seed that can sprout into life in a single moment?
There is such a seed, but it isn’t one for the garden. The right soil for this seed is our open, inspired thought. When we are mentally still and receptive, we perceive beautiful seeds of inspiration that God has already planted within us. This inspiration may be something like a clearer sense of God’s love for us – or even just a wordless feeling of gratitude. Whatever form these seeds may take, receiving inspiration, as beautiful as it is, is not the final goal of uncovering these seeds – it’s only the starting point. I’ve found that it’s what’s done with the seed of inspiration that matters most. If we let God’s infinite love “sprout” in our thoughts and take form in actions, we see more of the effects of that love in the way we feel, the way we see ourselves, the way we treat others.
I remember once feeling that injustice and rivalry in my workplace were taking opportunities to contribute away from me. I turned to God for help, but I didn’t fully open my thought to divine inspiration the first time that I prayed. I was much too full of self-justification. Nevertheless, God planted a seed of inspiration in me that day. It came to me along these lines: “Instead of being so focused on yourself, let your focus and love be on Me and what I express in you.”
I felt such tender care from God as I considered how divine Love is always expressing itself in us, God’s spiritual creation. Over the next days and weeks, as I became more receptive to this idea, the seed blossomed. I tried more actively to be a constant, selfless expression of God’s present goodness. And soon, more than ever before, opportunities to contribute at work naturally opened up.
Christ Jesus said, “For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear” (Mark 4:28). In kind of a poetic way, this points to something of this approach to prayer. “The full corn in the ear” could be understood as an inspired seed of an idea being made evident by us fully living it.
Referring to a passage from the first book of the Bible, Genesis, which talks about a “seed within itself,” the Monitor’s founder, Mary Baker Eddy, writes, “The seed within itself is the pure thought emanating from divine Mind” (“Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” p. 508).
Today, each of us can open our thought to these pure thoughts emanating from God and rejoice that we are freely gifted with these precious kernels of inspiration. Then, we can cultivate each seed so that it sprouts and grows within us, and becomes beautifully evident to ourselves and others in the lives of love we increasingly live.
