Science Fair Musings

A few decades ago, a lazy kid (me) entered a project in the Lomax Elementary Science Fair.

Full disclosure: lazy was my approach for every project in school.

Since the project was due and I hadn’t even decided on an idea, I was looking for inspiration. One of God’s gifts to me on that day was letting my mama leave some onions to sprout in this chain basket that hung from the ceiling. You see, they were in the basket all kinds of ways, but every single sprout was sprouting straight up. Now, I just had to figure out a project that culminated with all-kindsaways-upsprouty-onions. After carefully pondering for around 30 seconds I decided I would “do” an experiment to see if onions had to be planted a certain way for them to sprout and grow. How lucky for me that the experiment was already done! I was able to design and produce a fantastic trifold along with the onions to present on that important day, which was probably the very next one. Alas, I wasn’t a winner in that science fair, or any other to be honest but I completed the task and received a good grade. Much better than I deserved for certain.

God is still gifting me in ways that are so much better than I deserve but this memory got me thinking, does it really matter where I am and what my circumstances are to grow spiritually?

I imagine for an onion to grow in the most efficient and optimal way it would be planted with the sprouting end up in some sort of soil and an onion-growth inducing climate, (I really don’t know if that’s true & onion fact checking was not vital.) My perfect growing circumstances would include a bright and airy, neatly organized office space where I could rise about 10am and spend a few hours reading the bible and contemplating my belly button while waiting to hear from the Lord, while practicing my brushlettering. While I did that very important job, my life would run itself, including meals, carpool, all cleaning and pool maintentance (I don’t have a pool but in my perfect scenario I do), and making plenty of money which I would obviously use to support my church and Jesus&Yoga Ministries, along with feeding every hungry child on the earth.

Needless to say my life looks nothing like that. It’s more like a bunch of onions thrown in a chain basket all kinds of ways. It would be easy to buy into a culture perspective that my setup *had* to be strategic to guarantee results. That’s certainly the message I see and hear but I know different.

I know different because those sprouty onions showed me that sprouts reach for light, no matter what.

God planted that seed when He gave me those plants in 1980-something. That everything I needed to grow, He had placed inside me and it was my job to reach for The LIGHT. The rest, God makes happen just as it should-no matter how I am oriented. What an absolute relief, right?! So I can wait until heaven to have my perfect life, just as God has promised. And while I’m here in all kinds of ways, I’ll be reaching for The LIGHT. No matter what.

Reach with me?