One of my favourite childhood stories is that of Frog and Toad,  called The Garden.

Toad, a contrary amphibian, plants some seeds.  Unable to wait, he digs up the seeds to see if they are growing. His friend Frog explains that he must trust and wait. Eventually, this being a children’s story, Toad learns patience and is rewarded by the germination of his seeds. Not the ones he dug up, naturally.

Faith is such a seed. We plant it in the sure and certain hope of something – blessedness, the Kingdom of Heaven, resurrection?  Then we wait. But if we are like Toad (and most of us are) we don’t want to wait. We want a reaction now.  If faith in God has any truth, it must return on our investment now! RIGHT NOW! 

Some preachers have peddled this. Pray now, and blessings will fall upon you!  A spiritual fruit machine with the odds overwhelmingly in your favour.

But what if faith were more like gardening?  You have to wait for the seeds to germinate. Sometimes you have to wait months for an orchid to stop sulking and put on a bud. You have to wait a year for the bulbs crouched beneath your lawn to burst out of darkness into glorious technicoloured spring. Sometimes, as with the Giant Himalayan Lily, the wait is unbelievably long.

How do we know if our seed of faith is dead in the ground or building strength, biding its time, for a glorious flowering? How do we know if death is the end or a necessary part of spiritual growth? Where is our friend Frog to help us?

Well, our friend Frog is here. He’s the quietly spoken priest, the humble believer, the thoughtful monk. They watch, they pray, they remember the past, they trust in the future. And see the seeds grow.

That is the Easter message.

 

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