Our seeds need to be nurtured, not neglected

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 9: Ever since Satan was told that the seed of a woman would bruise his head, he has attempted to beat that seed to the punch, by trying to destroy it.

Genesis 3:15:
And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

As you travel around the island, the saddest things to look at are the heads of bruised men. 

Many are void of hopes and dreams, happiness and joy, and a good future.

Why? Because they have been bruised by life choices that have resulted in their current state.

Each person you look at today was once a seed full of potential.

They were born and their parents had great hope for them. They were going to become ‘somebody’.

Of course they have become somebody, but for many of them, it is not the body that the parents had dreamed of.

What went wrong? One can only guess. However, what is true is that every newborn seed has supernatural, innate potential within and must be nurtured until it is seen without.

That means that very much like a natural seed of a fruit, the seed must be planted, watered, pruned and groomed.

It is my belief that the issues Bermuda faces with our youth have to do with how the seed is planted, watered, pruned and groomed.

Was the seed planted in mature love and commitment? Was the seed watered by the purest of water possible?

Was the seed pruned or disciplined as it began to grow and became more independent?

Was the seed groomed by mature advice of those who were modelling acceptable behaviour?

Truth be told, if Satan can, he will kill the seed potential in the womb; that is his desire.

Hence, many who were nestled within the uterine lining of the woman are unnaturally discharged out of the womb, thereby destroying the seed.

However, if the seed makes it into the Earth’s atmosphere, the plan of Satan has to be stepped up in order that the seed is destroyed.

Distracted, immature, uneducated, ungodly or economically unprepared parents are factors that add to the destruction of the seed.

How sad to see parents become willing participants in the destruction of their own seed. Any parent who is still focused on his or her own self is selfish.

Once a child is born the child must become the priority. If the child is not shaped and groomed from birth, the parents will find it near impossible to groom them when they reach adolescence.

As I thought on this column, the saddest image that came to my mind was that of a teen or young man sitting behind the bars of a prison as if he was an animal.

What did I see? I saw a seed that had been bruised.

In other words, the possible great future was now very limited.

The potential of that seed was now locked up, and it would now take extreme transformation for him to become all that he is capable of.

It is not impossible; but it will be more of a challenge.

Why? Because somewhere early in the stages of development, the parents did not successfully use time to shape and mould the life of their child into being the great human being he is capable of becoming.

Is all lost? Never. No, there is yet hope. And it is my hope and prayer that while the seed is now encased in the prison, that he will come to himself and realize that he was not born for a prison.

Luke 15:18:
I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee,
19: And am no more worthy to be called thy son: Make me as one of thy hired servants.
20: And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.

Perhaps our prisoners ought to allow their cells to become a shell — a shell of hope surrounding them as they wait to burst through the hard core of the shell and bring forth new life.

Indeed, as long as there is life, there is hope. The bruised can be healed and provide healing to others.

DR MARIA A SEAMAN is pastor of Shekinah Worship Centre, North Shore Road, Hamilton Parish.