Heart and Soul: Apples

Ever count how many seeds are in an apple? It’s not really a trick question or anything, but some people might just be inquisitive enough to do such a thing. It’s the sort of thing you do when you’re seriously bored, when you’ve lost all your tiddley-winks, and you’ve already wound your watch so many times that the spring is stuck. (Young people, you won’t have a clue what I’m talking about, but that’s okay: it’s Tuesday!)

Really, there’s four to six seeds in there, but I’ve never taken time myself to really know. The truth is, you can figure out how many seeds are there, but you can’t tell how many apples are in a seed! (I sound so brilliant when I say things like this!) I had a talk to our congregation about this very thing this past Sunday; it was a powerful time of turning on the lights for many people.

Many of us are the kind of people who would despise small things when we compare them to the magnitude of mountains we face, but mountains can be moved — people do it every day. I went on a tour through one of BC’s coal mines. To get to the coal, they moved an entire mountain to get to their treasure. Some would think it was such a waste, but not to those who have had jobs, or the company that sells what they’ve dug up, or those who benefit from their product.

As we look around us at farms, buildings, cities, resorts — you name it — anything that a person has designed, painted, built, all began as a seed, a seed of thought, or an idea. The seed was the beginning of the creation they saw in their mind, and as they planted the seed, and watered it, it became what we all can benefit or take pleasure from.

An apple seed contains the ability, in the right circumstances, to become an entire eco-system or economy. Most, when looking at a seed, might imagine the apple it came from, other more industrious individuals, see a tree, but why not an orchard, or apple pies in a bakery, candy apples or apple juice? Why wouldn’t you see orchards all across the nation, or in other nations? Beyond that, you could imagine the workers needed to tend the trees, pick the apples, trucks and drivers to transport them. After that there are managers, accountants, buildings, factories to build the crates, boxes… and on it goes. Hmmmm, and all I thought I was looking at was an apple seed!

We’ve all been blessed with an imagination that needs to be used, but many times we’re so seized up with fear and doubt, that we can’t see beyond the seed, and because we can’t eat it right now, we throw it away… a bird will eat it…

Sometimes we won’t look beyond the seed because we’re too lazy to, and would rather someone else do it for us. I’m glad that not everyone thinks this way. In our imaginative thinking process, part of the design to it, is we will almost always need someone to help us. This is what creates community, economy, and a strong sense of well being.

If you hang around me much, I’ll always try to push your imagination a little, just to see what kind of good stuff is hiding in the ol’ noggin’ there. Buried in each one of us is an incredible idea that will have an effect on our world. Some will be great, some, more useful than others, but nonetheless, something of value for the benefit of others.

In the Book of Proverbs 10:4 (yes from the Bible) it says, “He who has a slack hand becomes poor, But the hand of the diligent makes rich.”

This speaks of taking those “seeds” from your apple and doing something creative with them that creates value and benefit for others. It’s not an impossible task; with just a little bit of work and a few friends, who knows, you might change the world!

You may have read about a person or two who have: what’s that guy’s name with computers made out of apples?

We’ll talk soon!