Beauty Within the Seeds…

These beautiful poppies delight us. Fortunately, the wonderful ability to replicate their beauty is tightly wrapped inside them. However, if those tiny seeds are inappropriately used, there is potential for harm, addiction, destruction, and death lurking within them. With that in mind, the poppy seed becomes an example of what is so disordered with creation and its creatures.

Within human nature lie the seeds for godliness, goodness, grace, mercy, and love. However, disordered thinking and corrupted spirits have released the hidden dangers of envy, jealousy, greed, malice, pride, character weaknesses, and capitulation to unhealthy temptations. Jesus said that evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, lying and slander come from the heart.

Such attitudes and behaviors are lethal. They result in emptiness, anxiety, depression, anger, guilt, shame, broken relationships, and spiritual death. Yet, those actions, emotions, and consequences also prompt a desire for personal change, improvement, and redemption. However, our imperfections and motives are too impure to lift us beyond our brokenness. Our endeavors at self-righteousness obviously miss the mark. Isaiah, who was a plain talking prophet, flatly stated that “all our righteousness is like filthy rags” in light of God’s holiness!

Happily, there is a solution for our unrighteousness. However, spiritual wholeness must originate from outside ourselves: “It is not by righteousness we have done but by God’s mercy” we are saved. Jesus died to take the guilt and shame generated by our sins so that we can experience complete forgiveness and a repentant life motivated by gratitude and love for God and His great mercy.

Knowledge of God and His Gospel can grow into believing faith and eventually blossom into beautiful righteousness: a life of humility, peace, forgiveness, integrity, and love.