Objects needed: Various types of seeds and/or packets of seeds

Have you ever planted a garden or had a chance to look closely at seeds? Seeds have interesting designs. Carrots seeds are brown, very tiny and have ridges. Lettuce seeds are also brown and very small, but are more smooth. Sunflower seeds are as large as your fingernail and have a pretty striped pattern. (If you have room to plant something, try sunflowers seeds – fun!) Beet seeds have spikes that make them look rough and jagged.

(Lesson may be individualized by substituting descriptions of available seeds.)

Garden seeds come in paper packets with a colorful picture on the front showing what the seed will look like when it is grown. Directions for planting the seeds are on the back of the packet. If we plant and tend the seeds according to directions, after a few days tiny plants, called seedlings will poke through the ground. We may think that the more seedlings we have growing, the better. But, this is not the case. When too many seeds have been sown, the plants may crowd each other as they grow. If this happens none of the plants will have room to grow properly. Plants that are overcrowded must be reduced in number (thinned) so they will be able to produce tasty vegetables or beautiful flowers.

This idea of having too much of something is discussed in the Bible. Jesus told a man, “Beware! Keep yourselves from covetousness, for a man’s life doesn’t consist of the abundance of the things which he possesses” (12:15).

We are cautioned that we should not fill our lives with too many things. We can be so focused on accumulating treasures that we don’t have room or time to think about the treasures that God offers us. And, these treasures, such as love, peace and joy, are the real treasures that allow us to grow and become sturdy and strong.

Scripture quotations from the World English Bible

Copyright 2011, Richard Niell Donovan