Planting Some Seeds

Planting Some Seeds
By Shirley Mitchell
"What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe-as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow."
1 Corinthians 3:5-7
Coral had been waiting 10 days on standby to fly from San Francisco to return to her home in Israel. When she saw that the plane equipment for the flight on the 10th day had been upgraded to a 767, she thanked God. There was room for her on the flight. She had no idea how right she was because God was truly involved with getting her on that flight that day.

God arranged for this sweet young lady to sit next to me on this 5-hour leg of her trip. I have been praying for God to let me share with Jewish people the knowledge of Jesus as the Jewish Messiah. I was probably the only person on the flight who could pull out her Bible study on 35 Hebrew names of God and another short lesson on the Jewish Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. When I saw her typing on her laptop in Hebrew, I went to the bathroom and squealed! I asked God to give me the words to pour out what He had put into me. At the same time, I asked God to help me to not be overbearing since I had her trapped by the window.

When I returned to my seat, I plainly told her that Jesus was the Jewish Messiah and then explained to her the prophecies that Jesus fulfilled proving so. When she spoke about her Jewish feasts, I could talk about them right along with her. We talked about Shavuot, the summer wheat harvest feast, and Sukkot, the feast of the tabernacle or to Christians the feast of ingathering. We talked about Passover and setting the table for Elijah. I explained to her that Elijah had already come. Malachi 4:5 was fulfilled by John the Baptist, the forerunner to Jesus. When she brought up Purim, I talked about how we just celebrated it, and my beloved husband made Haman's ears which are like cookies.

I was living 1 Corinthians 3:5-7 that day. Just like God's servants Paul and Apollos were used - one to plant seeds and the other to water the seeds, God used me that day to share what He had taught me and the experiences that I have had with Him. Some other servant may come along and water the seeds that I planted, but neither of us is responsible for the growth of the seeds. God is responsible! In His safe hands, I can trust that the seeds that were sown will not be in vain. She had waited 10 whole days for a flight, for the very flight that God had me on, because our Father was reaching out to this precious woman. He will grow what He has planted. O precious one, are you prepared to pour out what God has poured into you? Are you willing to sow the seeds even if you never see them grow? Let's live a faith where we see encounters as opportunities to steer the conversation to our God and share what God has planted in our hearts.

Pray with me: Oh, God, thank You so much for how You are so involved in our lives. Thank You for arranging this meeting. We pray that You continue to seek this precious woman. We trust You to make the seeds grow in her heart. We ask You to give us more opportunities to plant and water and to share the good news of truth that You have planted in our hearts. It's in the mighty Name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.


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