an orchard in apple...

Genesis 1:29 – “Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.”

I’ve always found Genesis 1 and 2 to be life-giving to me--seed-bearing--I guess you could say. Tucked within its tender and poetic expressions are nuggets of hidden treasure. I’ve always been fascinated with treasure hunts and the idea that I may find a treasure map that leads to sunken treasure of some sort or another. I’ve never happened upon treasure that could assist me toward early retirement, but I have discovered treasures in the Scripture that have thoroughly exhilarated me as if I stumbled upon a treasure chest full of gold. Today was such a day.

As God put his dreams to drama and created the world of his imagination, I’m struck with the ingenuity of his ideas. Some of them are so common to us now that we miss the brilliance of their origin. The phrase that hit me today was one such idea.

“every tree that has fruit with seed in it”

No dugh. What’s the big deal?

Well, I grant you that response and respect its origin because this little 9-word phrase doesn’t seem to have anything profound in it. I get your puzzlement. But this is a puzzle that has pieces that are alive with meaning if we could but piece them together.

A tree has fruit that has seeds.

It is amazing that a tree bears fruit. But that is easy to appreciate and applaud. You walk up to the tree, pick the fruit and eat its sweet flesh with pleasure. You value it for its taste and nourishment. You value the tree for its usefulness and production. You can see the product. Most people are drawn to product and the marketing of produce from a production. Supply and demand leads to mass production for mass consumption. Supply and demand. Consumption and Production. It’s a trees and fruit conversation.

But there is something that is unseen going on here that is pure genius. This is what most people don’t see and, as such, don’t notice or value.

When God dreamt up fruit he had another dazzling idea. An idea that was, in fact, more important than the fruit. It was unseen, buried within the product. It was something that was infinitely more important than the fruit itself. Every piece of fruit was impregnated with seeds.

It was amazing enough that there were apples in the orchard.

But the best idea was that there were orchards in the apple.

This is the power of the seed. God created “fruit with seed in it”. But you mustn’t eat the flesh and throw out the core. The core is where the reproductive power lies. This is where the everlasting life is hidden. This is where a life is literally “born again”.

I love the creative design of God. Any entrepreneurial heart must learn from the master if he or she would hope to invent something extraordinary. It is ordinary for people to get distracted with the “seen product” and completely miss the “unseen process”. Few get to the core and fewer still crack the code of the core getting to the seed.

When you create, are you thinking about the seed you’re planting in your product? Are you giving people an apple or an orchard? Does your product possess the process of “life-reproduction”? This applies to all of life, not just industry.

Does my conversation have a seeds of thought that sprout up later in a person’s life?

Do I plant seeds in my sermons or feed people?

Am I so focused on product placement that I neglect the planting of a process in the product that berths life later taking the product further than its initial consumption?

Do I evaluate what I’m doing based on the “fruit of my labor” or the “seeds of my labor”? Am I about “picking fruit” or “planting seeds” with my life?

When I create something is it embedded with time-release capsules of energy-producing beauty? Is there an after-effect to my product? Is the experience something that can be “born again” in the person enjoying my creative expression or is it a “one and done” experience?

God had this great idea: Create trees that create fruit that create seeds that create trees that create fruit that create trees, etc. I’m finding that the more I hang out with God the more I’m amazed at his creative genius.

He is the God who puts seeds in fruit.

There’s an orchard in every apple.