Is it too late to plant?

Then Jesus said,"What is the Kingdom of God like? How can I illustrate it?  It is like a tiny mustard seed that a man planted in a garden; it grows and becomes a tree, and the birds make nests in its branches."
                                                        - Luke 13:18-19

Late this spring a good friend came to me and asked me to help start a Community Garden at our church. I thought it was a great idea and in fact had been toying with the idea since the previous spring.  We had so much to do but first we had to get the church board to give us the money we would need to by the supplies. That was relatively easy, but then came tilling up the ground, purchasing the supplies to build the fence and getting it built, enriching the soil, and finally buying and planting the plants.  Well, as I said this all started in late spring, well past when we should have already had the garden planted. I almost suggested that we just get the garden ready and wait to plant until next spring. After all, the plants might not have a chance to mature in time to really produce the way they should, but my friend was so sure that it would work out that I couldn't tell her she had to wait.  So we got everything ready and planted the plants, and wouldn't you know... they grew beautifully.  We are already  starting to harvest some veggies, a little later than normal but our little plants are really florishing.

When I saw how our garden was doing it made me think about how I had wanted to wait to plant.  What if someone had wanted to wait to plant the seed of God's love in my heart? You see until about a year and a half ago I was an atheist.  I had been for most of my life.  But my family had never given up on me.  My wife (fiancee at the time) never gave up on me.  They lived their lives the way God wanted them to live and they set a good example for me. They planted the seed of a love for God in me that layed dormant for quite some time, but when the time was right, a big crisis in my family's life, that seed sprouted and grew into something beautiful.

What if they had waited to plant that seed?  It would not have been there when I needed it the most.  It is never to late to plant that seed.  You might have to be very patient and you might not see the results of your work for a long time, you might have to tend that seed through the cold weather and wait for it to come up next year.  Some of the seeds you plant may never come up, but when one does, wow! Look how beautiful it is.  And yes, that is just one plant but that one plant may hold hundreds of seeds that it will be able to drop in soil nearby, and each of those might grow into a plant with hundreds of seeds.  In just a few generations your one little seed could grow into a whole garden. 

It's never too late to plant that seed, so go on, get planting.