What a Single Pumpkin Seed Taught Me about God’s Love

My boyhood home was surrounded by alfalfa fields. When I was nine years old, I cleared a small plot on the edge of the fields to plant a garden. In early spring, I planted a single pumpkin seed and cared for it each day, eager for it to sprout. Within days, to my delight, small green leaves pushed through the soil. Over the days and weeks that followed, I marveled at the rapid rate of growth of my small, single pumpkin seed. With divine components of seed, soil, sunlight, and water, my small seed miraculously transformed into multiple vines stretching out in all directions.

A short time later, green bulbs appeared where orange and yellow flowers had just bloomed. And over the course of the summer, the bulbs transformed into large, orange pumpkins. When the harvest arrived, I cut open my pumpkins. I was astonished! Each pumpkin had produced hundreds and hundreds of seeds.

You might be thinking to yourself, “That’s great, but what does this pumpkin seed have to do with me as a young adult?” Well, in observing the seemingly endless supply of seeds from my harvest, I suddenly understood how, with God’s help, the finite (one seed) could be transformed into the infinite and eternal. I saw that “with God nothing shall be impossible” (Luke 1:37). I experienced the truth of the scriptural words “by small and simple things are great things brought to pass” (Alma 37:6).

God created my small pumpkin seed to produce limitless, even infinite, generations of seeds in a never-ending cycle of growth and development. And the same is true for many other things in our lives, including the ability to feel and share His divine love.

Cultivating God’s Love

Over time, I have come to understand that our loving Heavenly Father has planted within each of us the seed of His eternal love. God loves us enough to plant His love in our souls with the intention that we cultivate and grow it through service, faith, repentance, and covenant keeping.

So what about those times in life when we feel far from God’s love? Sometimes we feel distanced from Him because we’ve made mistakes or sinned and haven’t found the strength or courage to take the first steps toward repentance. Sometimes we get so busy and distracted by all the other things we have going on in life that we forget or put off doing the little things every day that help us feel closer to our Heavenly Father and His love. We may also feel like we’ve had one too many unanswered prayers or one too many people who have hurt us or times when God didn’t help us.

We might feel so out of touch with God’s love in our own lives that we can’t even conceive of how we could share that love with others.

But no matter the station or condition of our lives, no matter what suffering or injustice we have endured, our Heavenly Father’s love can grow through the hardships in our lives. It can overcome all pain, anger, and frustration. If we cultivate God’s love through kindness, courtesy, compassion, and inclusion, it will grow exponentially. Our capacity to love and serve others will become infinite, eternal, and more beautiful than we ever dreamed possible.

As we cultivate the seed of God’s love within us, we can reap the pure love of Christ—charity (see Moroni 7:47). Those who cultivate the seed of God’s love also reap a bounteous crop of friends, fellowship, and increased faith—three things that all young adults could use! As we carefully cultivate the seed of God’s love, we can experience a limitless harvest of eternal love in our family relationships, our Church service, and our personal lives.

Sharing God’s Love

The scriptures teach that “God is love” (1 John 4:8). President M. Russell Ballard, Acting President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, observed that “the most important attribute of Heavenly Father and of His Beloved Son that we should desire and seek to possess within our lives is the gift of charity, ‘the pure love of Christ’ (Moroni 7:47).”¹

This pure love of Christ enables us to love and to serve others as the Savior did. As we follow Christ’s example of service, we discover the love of God within us and learn how to share that love.

Those who know me well know that I still often carry a pumpkin seed in my pocket to remind me of the important life lesson learned: Heavenly Father can take something as small as a seed of love in our lives and transform it into powerful, never-ending, and eternal love and service of God, neighbors, and self.

Note

1. M. Russell Ballard, “Finding Joy through Loving Service,” Liahona, May 2011, 49.