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Then God said let the land sprout with vegetation

God said "Let the land sprout with vegetation--every sort of seed-bearing plant, and trees that grow seed-bearing fruit. These seeds will then produce the kinds of plants and trees from which they came." And that is what happened. The land produced vegetation--all sorts of seed-bearing plants and trees with seed bearing fruit. Their seeds produced plants and trees of the same kind and God saw that it was good. And evening passed and morning came, marking the third day.
(Genesis 1:11-13) In the Book of John we are taught that Jesus was with God at the beginning of time, breathing life into all things. When I read this passage of the third day I am struct by the repetition of the seed. Throughout scripture the seed has been linked to Christ's coming for he was conceived by the holly spirit with the seed of woman. Indeed moving a little bit further into the scripture in Chapter 3 we are told that it is the seed of woman who will stomp on the head of the serpent, another allusion to Christ's coming. This reminds us that even at the beginning Christ was in preparation for coming--to reconcile the living world with the world of the spirit and God's righteousness. In this fashion, the natural world that surrounds and flourishes around us with flowers and edible fruits, in lieu of this drenched layer of meaning of the seed of Christ, we must look at all that flourishes from seed as evidence of God's graciousness in promising his son both in his first incarnation and in his coming return.
Dear Abba, Father, show us how steeped the world is with your son's body that we may treat all life with respect and grace and mercifulness. In Jesus's name, Amen.

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