Seeds of life

The 3+1 (households ) families that travelled to Holland and UK together in April, namely my in-laws, my family, my dad and Chris's mum all bought lily bulbs from Keukenhof because Chris and his mum said they could bloom in Malaysia. When we gathered for a re-union at Chris's house last month for his mother's delicious fish head mee hoon, of course one main topic of discussion was " Have your bulbs bloomed?"

So there apart from viewing our holiday photos, we checked the status and progress of our bulbs. My dad said he had a gigiantic stalk and it was going to bloom anything but not yet. My father in law recieved his bulb late because they forgot to retrieve it from our suitcase at the airport so his was not going to bloom that quickly but it was growing well. Mine was also on the verge of blooming and Chris's mum bulbs were growing healthily and also about to bloom anytime.


So like excited parents and grandparents of new anak - the lily flowers - we waited with bated breath and exchanged photos of our anak when they bloomed.



The first bulb to bloom was my dad's white and pink beauty. It has 3 whorls and pink lines in the middle of the white petals. Oh so beautiful! I would take photos of the flowers whenever i visited my mum. The first stalk had 3 blooms and the second stalk had 4 blooms after a week.





























2nd to bloom was my white lilies - single whorled with delicate pink tips at the sides. I had several stalks and all 11 flowers bloomed a few days after one another so the 11 flowers were really pretty.

Then Chris sent the photos of his Rawang red beauty. Triple whorled- all red and many blooms.

Shortly after that, my deep red beauties bloomed and their beautiful deep red in contrast with my whites made such a pretty picture that even my newspaper lady was enthralled by them.

Last to bloom was Mama - my mother in law's flowers. These were also triple whorled but they had a pointy white streak in the middle and her petals were pointed. Such interesting variations of flowers!

And mama had an extra bonus! The seeds she recieved during the flower street parade grew and bloomed and behold this sweet pink flower next to her red.

The pink flower gets to be quite big. Chris said his bulbs from the parade didn't have a chance - he thought they were chocolates and not seeds. My dad's seeds grew but did not bloom. I didn't get any bulbs from the parade - I think they only gave to the old people and yours truly was much younger compared to the older generation.

In retrospect, I marvel at the life that remains in the seeds even after so many weeks of dormancy. We planted the seeds like about two weeks after we bought them and carried them in a light proof box home. In my father in law's case, he planted his seeds about 3 weeks later. Yet the life in them is so vibrant and strong that they have the potential to grow and to bloom once they recieve light and water and are grounded in good soil.

This has given me renewed faith on God's word. Last night at the Parents Appreciation Night, Rev Dennis Balcombe shared precious words of life - seeds with life - just like these lily bulbs we brought . Just as those seeds grew and bloom all at different time in different households, I am confident the precious seed of God's word contains life and will bloom beautifully in these 3+1 households plus all the other households that heard the word of life.

I am reminded of the parable of the sower. An excerpt from the parable;

This is what the parable means: the seed is the word of God.

Luk 8:12 The seeds that fell along the path stand for those who hear; but the Devil comes and takes the message away from their hearts in order to keep them from believing and being saved.
Luk 8:13 The seeds that fell on rocky ground stand for those who hear the message and receive it gladly. But it does not sink deep into them; they believe only for a while but when the time of testing comes, they fall away.
Luk 8:14 The seeds that fell among thorn bushes stand for those who hear; but the worries and riches and pleasures of this life crowd in and choke them, and their fruit never ripens.
Luk 8:15 The seeds that fell in good soil stand for those who hear the message and retain it in a good and obedient heart, and they persist until they bear fruit.

We need to pray for our seeds to be cast into the right soil or ground. We need to continually take the weeds, the thorns and the rocks out of the soil of our parents' hearts.

Pray the Devil will have NO chance to take away the seed. In the parable, the devil is represented by a bird that eats the seed. I looked at the lily bulbs we brought back from Holland - they are so big that no bird can eat them - otherwise the bird will cekik ( be choked). Similarly I believe the word of God is a Big Big seed and we pray and command that the devil cannot eat the seeds of life. Let us pray the seeds of life sown last night through God's word will sprout and bloom beautiful blooms.

Yesterday at the Parents' Night Appreciation dinner, we exchanged notes again and Chris's flowers are still blooming while our flowers have all passed their prime season. We have all agreed to exchange anak once the bulbs start multiplying in the ground

More important, we take the parable of the lily bulb and see it to be a manifest version of the seed of word of eternal life and that our parents will all bloom beautifully albeit in their old age.