Travels recently North of Sydney had me pondering
an Australian native lily’s means of reproduction. The lily puts up a stem with
a flower bud. The flower buds and seed heads form. The seed heads seemingly are
too heavy for the stem to hold. The stems fall to the ground.
This places the
seeds against the ground where there are ready to propagate.
The distance between the base of the plant and the
seed heads is about a metre. It is common for four to five seed heads to fall
in opposite directions such that the plant radiates out in different directions.
It is not difficult to image that these plants, left unchecked, could populate
a massive area in a matter of eight or nine seeding cycles. The stem seems to
lose its vigour from the base as a means of supporting the seed head in good
health. The stem seems to rot away before reproduction is complete.
The lily’s name is swamp lily. It’s
scientific name is Crinum pedunculatum. I’m thankful to the Tilligerry Habitat for
helping to identify the plant. The Habitat does not have any of the lilies
within their boundary yet I found a location nearby where there were numerous
lilies.
Photo or lily
Photo of one of five seed heads on the lily.
The seed heads had fallen in a rough pattern: North, North-west, East, South and West.
The plant and its seed heads had me contemplating
the Bible. Jesus recognised the wild seeding of plant seeds in explaining his
own death. Jesus in dying for us produced many seeds. The seeds are the members
of his church. Through confidence in the historical Jesus and through
confidence that Jesus was God’s son we can be part of the process of growing
his church.
Very
truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it
remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. John
12:24 NIV
We should be like
the Australian swamp lily - putting seeds out in our ministry with others. The seeds
should fall in all directions – they should radiate out. We should not be
afraid to reach in all directions from us. There is a vast space to be filled
with the love of Christ.
Shalom,
Ozhamada
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