I read an interesting article about an ancient clay jar containing seeds from about 2000 years ago was unearthed in an archeological excavation of Herod the Great's palace in the early 1960's. The seeds were then placed in a drawer. It was not until 2005 that a researcher got the idea to plant one of the seeds to see what would happen. The researcher had "little hope" of anything happening. Much to their surprise, the seed germinated and a plant that was extinct for centuries sprouted. The plant even produced a flower and is thriving. What the article does not mention, but I'm sure that great care was taken to plant the seed in soil that would encourage germination and in the proper lighting and temperature.

This article fascinated me for a couple reasons:
  • The seeds were carefully placed in a jar by persons unknown.
  • The seed was not given great expectation to survive and thrive
  • The seed defied all odds and germinated. The plant produced a living plant that has not been seen in centuries.
And of course, I can find a parallel to this story.

We, like those seeds are placed on this earth. We are born to earthly parents who love us, but they may not have the gospel in their lives. So, the gospel seed is dormant. Situations arise that the gospel may never be heard of through generations. The reasons could be because that the restored gospel was not found on the earth when they were living. Or the gospel has not been brought to them. Or perhaps they heard and rejected the gospel. These are the three main reasons but in any event, the gospel seed stays dormant within them.

The Assistant To the President of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir relayed this story to us as a choir last week before a session of General Conference:

A family living in the middle of no where was wondering why they were sent to this particular area. They were active LDS family in a part where the gospel was not prevalent. Later, through their children, some of their friends accepted the gospel and were baptized. They knew that was the reason why they were sent there. The one boy is on his mission and the other boy returned from his mission. However, the last boy had no place to go home to as his parents disowned him for his decision to join the church and serve a mission. Now, the family has moved back to Utah and have invited the returned missionary to live with them. He was going to be attending his first ever General Conference at the Conference Center.

The message here is that The Lord does not give up on His children. The gospel seeds within all of us can be planted and nurtured by the good word of The Lord. They can be carefully taken care of and bloom. Conversely, they can find fertile ground through others when their own soil is hardened. We can all be those gardeners by taking our God-given tools and break the hardened soil so that those gospel seeds can take root.

We have heard from our prophets and apostle that we all need to take an active part in rescuing and nurturing the soil. To be preparing them to hear the gospel. It is our earthly mission. No matter his hard and unwilling a person seems, we can prepare the soil. And we should never, EVER give up on them.

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