Posts Tagged ‘Mark 4:26-29’

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Br. Jamie Nelson, SSJE

Mark 4:26-29

“The seed would sprout and grow, though the sower does not know how.”[1]

To the disciples listening to Jesus, watching seeds sprout and grow must have seemed a rather mysterious process despite being a commonplace sight in first-century Galilee. Sure, each year they would have seen farmers scattering seed over wheat and barley fields in late autumn once the first winter rains had arrived. They would have observed tiny green seedlings emerging from the soil 1-2 weeks after sowing. But what exactly was going on in that invisible underground process?

Twenty centuries after Jesus first shared this parable, plant physiologists can tell us much more about the workings of seed germination, that temperature, moisture, air, and light all interact to provide the precise conditions that signal to seeds that it’s time to grow, to break out of their protective coats and lengthen up towards the light.

Different types of seeds need different conditions to spark growth. In forests, grasslands, and deserts, a soil seed bank builds up over time. Seeds from different plant species accumulate and lie dormant, waiting for their moment. Some seeds need the two-step sequence first of winter’s freezing cold and then of spring’s warming thaw as the green light to go. Other kinds of seeds may rest in the soil seed bank for years, even decades, until mechanical, chemical, or thermal processes spark growth.[2] Read More