Seeing Seeds: One Spirit, So Many Gifts

I recently returned from a gathering at Windstone Farm, where we reflected on Lilias Trotter's life and work with Jennifer Trafton. She's working on a forthcoming book on Trotter ("If Only We Could See: Reimagining Creativity, Compassion, and Calling through the Extraordinary Life of Lilias Trotter"), I can't wait to read it! It was such a joy to share Lilias with people who have long cherished her writings and art, and with others who are new to her.

I jointly credit my enjoyment of plants and their intricate transformations to nature walks with my mother and brother, and to Lilias Trotter. Lilias is a model of attentive, curious seeing. Aspects of this approach come naturally to me, as I tend my summer garden and patio pots, fascinated by the shapes and colours these small patches of earth can yield. Not only in the flowers and foliage, but also in seeds, like the riotous pink plumes of my prairie smoke, the nodding heads of my poppies. But Lilias invites me to extend and deepen this kind of seeing.

Illustration from Parables of the Christ-Life, Lilias Trotter

In "Parables of the Christ-Life" she observes assorted seeds with delight, their varied shapes as vessels of a shared life, Jesus' life. She weaves verses among her detailed paintings (1 Corinthians 12.4,11; Romans 12.6-8, Colossians 4.17), describing manifold gifts of the Holy Spirit in parallel with the richly varied seeds.

Trotter sees a picture of God's many plans for our development in the uniqueness of seeds and their vessels. There is no need to imitate another's seed vessel, rather "to draw into our own the fulness of grace that we may develop into its full individuality the mission entrusted to us." And as the seed vessel is shaped alongside the seed, so our particular service is tailored to us and something which also shapes us.

Is it not the same wonderful Fashioner Who fits us and our ministry together, and forms us through it with unerring precision, preparing us for the white stone and a new name which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it, eternity's seal on the heavenly individuality of each. That eternal future will show how the Lord had need of each of us in our varying character, and how all that made up this earthly life fitted us for "bearing about" the special manifestation of Jesus entrusted to us, in which no other could take our place.

This thought of bearing a special image of Jesus deeply moves and humbles me. Lilias also reflects on the collective character of diverse gifting, something at play in the whole body of Christ - "[God] needs the whole Church to manifest His whole character." I'm awed that each of us, in whatever gifts and distinctiveness the Holy Spirit has given, collectively witness to Christ as His Church. The Spirit living in us gives expression to something of God, an abundance, an endless diversity encountered in little seeds and in the lives around us.

These lessons, seen through seeds, invite me to encourage and attend to the varied gifts in others. May we delight in one another as we delight in such glimpses of God.

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Sources:

Lilias Trotter, Parables of the Christ-Life, Facsimile Edition, Lilias Trotter Legacy Inc, 2020