BITESIZED POSSIBILITIES: Size isn't Everything!

Discovering New Perspectives

My daughter experimented with some watermelon seeds which she planted in a pot; daily watering and diligently checking growth with progress reports to those of us who were not monitoring so closely (with photographic documentary evidence!!!)

Tiny Watermelon Growing

To her delight leaves sprouted and a vine gradually grew along our balcony. Flowers appeared and eventually a green ball evolved.

Over a few weeks the fruit expanded but suddenly the vine leaves dried up. It was lush and thriving and a few days later all shrivelled and crispy.

Having never grown these before I assumed it was another gardening failure to add to our list of experiments.

I consoled her and we agreed it could still benefit the compost heap. However, our inquisitive and explorative girl wanted to cut it open, especially as her Dad explained the dryness indicated harvest time!!!

Watermelon growing in the pot

I admit I was also curious (and slightly disappointed; having envisioned a great refreshing luscious triumph after all the efforts and daily growth updates).

As she sliced the outer skin open we were all surprised to discover a ripe and juicy interior. A sweet and perfectly delicious minature melon!

Of course we all expected harvest to involve a heftier 2-3kg bounty like the ones we buy from the local vendor stall.

We measure weight, shape, colour and visible size before purchasing. I have also watched 'fruit experts' tap and listen to compare and choose the best....(a fruit testing skill that I need to improve!)

From an outer assessment the tiny fruit had nothing to boast of, yet it was secretly full of flavour and plenty of seeds. Neither dead nor a failure....but a fully formed and ripened ball of unexpected wonder!

Tiny ripe pieces of fruit

Changing Perspective

Perhaps our perspective is marred by misplaced expectations and flawed measurement systems? Things are often not what they seem. Value, harvest, and even fruitfulness may not come in the way we anticipate or look for. It may be sitting in the pots we have dismissed or have wrongly concluded are dried up failures.

I am learning in these days that kingdom thinking requires us to 'look again' so we become aware of the boundaries than our habitual sight patterns limit. We see only parts and lack perspective. We frequently miss the answers to prayer that are right before our unseeing eyeballs!

Answers may seem insignificant compared to our expectations but I suspect they are full of unexpected ripened sweetness and bursting with seeds for further future increase. Easy to overlook with biased preferences and limited vision but ready for the slicing.

Child like faith sees with wide-eyed possibillty and beautiful expectation and is rarely disappointed. In truth, our daughter was more excited to discover her efforts were fruitful and flavourful. She was more thrilled that she could hold it all in the palm of her hand and marvelling at how something so small and seemingly minimal could be so wonderful!

I need new eyes!