My Life as a Seed

But someone will say, "How are the dead raised? And with what kind of body do they come?" You fool! That which you sow does not come to life unless it dies; and that which you sow, you do not sow the body which is to be, but a bare grain, perhaps of wheat or of something else. But God gives it a body just as He wished, and to each of the seeds a body of its own (1 Corinthians 15:35-38).

This passage and the following verses give so much material to stimulate the imagination! We will be raised one day (or at least, if we don't die before the Lord's return, we will be changed). So, if we are not now what we one day will be, what will we be like? It sounds like Paul is urging us to think way beyond anything we are accustomed to in this life. What we will be when we see our Savior as He is so far surpasses what we currently are, that the change can be compared to a seed and its plant. Seeds are unremarkable. Seeds are basically the same on the outside as other seeds. Seeds are buried. But what comes to life? Oh, here we have beauty, variety, something useful, something to display!

Now, I'm thinking about the beauty we have on this world. There are talented, intelligent, gifted, generous, noble, and beautiful people. But, Christians, we're seeds. Just wait until we're planted and spring up with joy unspeakable! Think for a moment of what a whole garden of us will look like! There's Moses. Over here, Job. Paul, James, Augustine, Luther, Newton, Spurgeon. Me, you. The folks in your church. Thomas Kelly got it right:
Then we shall be where we would be,
Then we shall be what we should be,
Things that are not now, nor could be,
Soon shall be our own.

Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality (1 Corinthians 15:51-53).