Cool Beans!

We are indoors today, counting beans.

Well, we didn’t actually count them, but after several weeks of putting it off, we finally got around to removing the bean seeds from their pods so that they will be ready for planting this coming spring! I know that probably doesn’t sound exciting, but this is the first year that we planned on saving seeds, and it worked!

In case you wonder why we are saving our seeds when there are perfectly good seeds in the farm stores in the spring, it’s because we are getting interested in heirloom seeds and all that good stuff. You can save the seeds of an heirloom variety and the seeds will come up the next year with the same variety you planted this year.

So today, we were finally getting around to preparing our seeds for winter storage.

The pods look pretty gross, but the seeds inside are safe and sound, dry and shiny. I began removing the bean seeds in a process kind of like “shelling” peas. There is a groove down the center, and when I press into it, the pods splits open along the seam, and the seeds are right there in a row.

After I had opened several and started collecting a pile of white seeds, one of the pods opened to reveal brown seeds. Hmm, curiouser and curiouser! I kept the brown seeds in one bowl and put the white ones in another.

I tried to predict which color would be inside which pods, but they really all looked alike to me, and I couldn’t figure out a way to tell them apart until I opened them up. They were in different stages of drying, and also different stages of development, and some had no seeds at all.

As I continued to remove the seeds, I remembered that I had planted brown seeds. The white ones reminded me of navy beans, smooth and white and more oval-shaped. The brown ones were somewhat kidney-shaped. So there were definite differences between them.

Then I opened one that looked like it was right in the middle. The beans were shaped like the white beans, and the color was a lighter brown. I don’t know if the white vs. brown beans were really just stages of development, or if there were two varieties that were hybridizing each other, and we won’t know until we plant them in the spring.

As I went through the big pile of beans and continued extracting the seeds, I noticed that some were still attached. It reminded me of a little umbilical cord on a human, still attached to the mama pod.

Each of the pods was like a little family, I thought. The seeds were close together and separate from the world until the moment came to go out and make a family of their own. As I worked, I thought of families in our world today, and how the little ones are pushed out so early, ready or not. What happens to a little immature bean seed when the pod is opened too early, and the seed is stripped of its nourishment?

I remembered the words of Jesus, “I am the vine and you are the branches: He that abides in me, and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit: for without me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5)

I began to think of each bean pod as a church family: A family knit together because they all drink and eat from the same source, growing more and more like our Lord as they support each other in obeying His commands to love one another. As they are successful in doing this, by nature, they will become more unified with each other.

They live within a natural boundary that is comfortable, each one having enough space so that they don’t bother each other. yet they have companionship. And when the time comes for the pod to break open (which it will do naturally if left outside), the little seeds tumble out, and wait until the conditions are right to multiply.

I began to consider the color of the beans. I wondered how one might judge which was good and which was bad. As I thought about it, there were so many ways to judge which beans were good, but none of the reasons had to do with what was really important: Would they bear fruit?

We do tend to judge each other on our outward appearance, don’t we? But our conclusions are shallow because all we can see is the outside. Jesus counseled his disciples to judge not by appearance, but by what each person produced, by their fruit.

“Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” (I Samuel 16:7)

Some of the pods were disappointing because they had nothing inside at all. Maybe they had been harvested too early, or maybe they had been diseased. What could I do but throw them out?

That, too made me think of Jesus’ parable of the talents, where each servant was given a number of talents before their master went away on a long journey. When he returned, each servant was asked to show what he had done with what he had been given. One servant produced nothing. What else could the master do but throw out that which is fruitless? (Matthew 25:14 – 30)

The key thing to remember is that we have each been given something to work with, some gift or some resource that we can use to bless others. You can even be homeless and help other people with your wit, your wisdom, or your smile. Jim tells me every day how blessed he is by the people he serves at the mission. Sometimes, the humor they share with him makes his day.

We each have at least one gift to share with others. And when you keep your gift or your fruit all to yourself, doesn’t it burn in your heart? For we are meant to share it with others.

For so many years, I wrote poems and stories and put them in a drawer. (Maybe it was better that I did, for I wasn’t connected to the vine then.) But even so, the thought of them burned in my mind. I felt they needed to go out into the world. I worried that someone else would use “my” same ideas. (And they did, for gifts and ideas go out to many, but I had buried mine.)

I picture the servant who buried his talent, and then just waited for his master to return. I bet he worried and stressed constantly that someone would come along and find it. For if that happened, he would be lost, unable to pay what he had been loaned.

The servant who invested his talents wouldn’t have worried so much because he was producing more every day, and he would have at least the original amount and more to show, even if he lost some of it.

We will make mistakes. We will waste our efforts. We have so much to learn. But no matter where we are in the journey, we are still ahead of someone else, and can help them. You may have that missing piece that someone else needs to complete an idea or make a connection. Share it freely, and when God blesses it, there’s no telling how it can grow!

Our part is to be obedient, and to be willing. God takes care of the rest. Think of the flower that grows on a mountainside. It produces a bloom, and that bloom may not ever be seen by a man, but God sees it and says it is good. He made that flower, and He told it to be fruitful and multiply. And when it does, God is pleased. That is why he made that flower!

Sometimes our only audience is God. But how wonderful to please the King of Kings and Lord of Lords through simple obedience! I know it’s cold, and gray out there, but you have the light within you from the Lord. Let it shine out to those around you, and have a beautiful day. More importantly, help someone else have a beautiful day! God bless you, my dear friends!