green bean math

In April, I planted two short rows of seeds. When we got home from vacation in late June, the beautiful plants were full of hanging green beans ready to pick and eat. 

My two short rows yielded enough green beans for several delicious meals for Karl and me plus a great big bag of green beans that I took to the Lancaster Food Hub. The attendant took my bag of beans and weighed them, recording the donation in his log for the Adopt-A-Pantry program that gives gardeners a way to share their extra produce. Six pounds! I drove away satisfied and smiling, glad that someone who needed food would be able to enjoy beans fresh from the garden.

A few days later, those same two short rows again provided enough green beans for several meals for us and another great big bag of beans for the Food Hub. Another six pounds! There were more beans a few days after that. And then more a few days after that. And just two days ago, I again picked enough green beans for a few more meals for the two of us.

I am stunned! I planted a few seeds, a pile small enough to fit in my palm. Then I waited. And the seeds and the soil and the sun and the rain did their dance and voilà—huge piles of green beans. How did something so small become so much?!

Admittedly, this is my first garden, so perhaps I am overly impressionable. Still, the math feels miraculous. How is it that this kind of multiplication is considered “ordinary” in the world we refer to as the “natural” world?

We consider it natural for small seeds to grow into an abundance of food. We consider it natural that we can tuck a small seed into the ground, cover it with soil, do nothing for weeks, and then pick a harvest hundreds of times the size of the seed. What magic was occurring in my garden while I did nothing? What life force, what dance of nature, what Giver of Abundance was at work while I simply waited?

As I’ve pondered this green bean math and marveled at the abundance embedded within the world of living things, I have sensed the Spirit whisper: What if it works the same way with other kinds of seeds? What if small seeds of kindness, generosity, integrity, and advocacy multiply the way that green bean seeds do? What if the small seeds of loving action you sow into the world grow into something far more than you imagine?

I often think of the small seeds of loving action that I plant as “just a drop in the bucket” in a world full of cruelty and greed. Good seeds, but drops incapable of making any real difference in an ocean of brokenness and injustice.

But what if the marvelous multiplication of small physical seeds has a parallel in the spiritual realm? What confidence in small seeds of kindness and generosity and integrity and advocacy might be mine if I offer them to the One who thought up green bean math? Might I spend more time satisfied and smiling if I plant my small seeds with trust that they will multiply? 

Jesus highlighted the material-spiritual parallel centuries ago when he said that the kingdom of heaven was like a mustard seed someone planted. Though it was the smallest of seeds, it grew into a tree where birds could perch. 

This summer I’m grateful for yummy green beans for dinner (especially with butter and garlic), grateful for new awareness of “natural” multiplication, and grateful for the hope that rises when I consider our small seeds of loving action growing into more than we imagined.