Salsify seeds are like a “Superman” upgrade of dandelion “fluff.” Big, brown, and very fertile, every year sowing the next generation of salsify plants. I used a 105mm macro lens to pick out the fine detail of some parachutes in this one seedhead. A masterpiece of engineering design- all for the purpose of spreading life. All they need is a breeze and some good soil (although they will happily grow in cracks and crannies and inconvenient places).
Most of the structure of each parachute will be discarded: it is only the actual seed that carries the ability to share its DNA as new plants. But it is not wasted- the parachute has an essential role in scattering the seeds far from its starting place.
It makes an interesting comparison to the way God “spread” the Gospel of the Kingdom of Jesus. From the birthplace of Judea, the Church was spread by individuals who carried holy life. They were scattered by the wind of persecution; and by the Wind of the Spirit. We know some names- Peter, Paul, John and more- yet there was a bigger surge of life as the ordinary believers lived their faith and travelled from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth. Only God knows all the names and stories- yet the churches we belong to now worldwide can be traced back to anonymous Christians who took the instruction of Jesus seriously enough to risk their lives and wellbeing as ambassadors of an Unknown King. Neither Rome or Jerusalem wanted a new King- and not all the seeds that spread lived to see fruit. The way of the Cross has never been painless.
These believers went out with the words of Jesus flaming passionately in their hearts-
“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Matthew 28 v19-20
Our churches should be the structures that let the Church fly. I look back over the fellowships of believers I have been involved with from childhood to greying hair: and I can speak of seeds that set and produced good fruit, and of some seeds that seemed to fail… Only the Lord Jesus knows all the details, but that’s OK. After all. Jesus said “I will build my Church.”
We get the privilege of being seed-carriers. And the breeze of the Spirit is blowing, in a world of cracks and crannies and inconvenient places where Life can take root.
The Reflectionary 