Last Sunday I had the chance to attend a worship service in an old, very Germanic looking Lutheran church. It was more of an opportunity than I’d guessed it would be, for I hadn’t realized the day was Reformation Sunday, commemorating Martin Luther’s pounding those 95 theses on that Wittenburg church door 501 years ago and setting in motion a massive change in history and the church itself.

To start off with “A Mighty Fortress is our God,” accompanied by the big pipe organ, full choir, and complete (and accomplished) brass ensemble, and the sanctuary full of people singing: how wonderful that was! Not only because of that, but also the truths expressed in the commentary and sermon, it was a very moving service for me.

So later in the week, as I was sorting through bits of wisdom and wise sayings I’d cut out of books and magazines or jotted down in my journal, I was struck by what one of them quoted Martin Luther as saying. It’s here, first in this trio of quotes:

Do you find his comment as remarkable as I do: that this world changer would see such importance in such a small thing as planting an apple tree, especially if the world was about to go to pieces?

But then the more I thought about it, the more I realized how much his nailing of those theses was a seed- (or seedling-) planting. He never realized when he was doing that what all would grow out of it!

Nor do we with the little seeds we might plant each day: seeds of wisdom, of understanding, of care and concern, of kindness or creativity, of a word fitly spoken at just the needed moment.

So now I see it as very fitting to be winding down our 31 Days with a post about this, for aren’t all these bits and bobs of wisdom and commentary but seeds, scattered now into the air? What will happen because of them will depend partly on what you and I do with them–or, what they will do with us.  Will one of them change your life in some small, or large, way? Will one of them stick in your mind or heart and come forth just when someone else needs an insight or encouragement it expresses?

Who knows? God does, but we can’t even guess. So, as we finish out 2018 with November and December, and prepare to welcome another new year–or era–let’s not forget the importance of planting seeds, right when and where we are.

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Only one more post to go! And I will also (finally!) be putting up a page listing links to all 31 posts for this “Found Wisdom” project, and a link to that master page will appear at the top of my home page, for if you should want to reconnect with any of the individual posts in the future.