I’m not about to write a book on the proper technique for keeping mums alive. It was just a seed planted in good soil. Honestly, there’s just not much to say about the sower. And so it is with evangelism. We throw the seed, and God grows the seed. Paul shifts the credit off of himself and Apollos by saying, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth” (1 Cor 3:6-7). Do you hear that? “Only God.”

When we bought our house a few years ago, we noticed a nice retaining wall in the backyard that had some shrubs and plants scattered throughout. It was during the winter season, so most things were lying dormant. But when the Spring came, we were pleasantly surprised to find lilies, indigo, red clover. Beautiful shades of red, blue, white, and green. This year, when we looked out, we noticed a plant growing that we hadn’t noticed before. It was a healthy, beautiful white mum. What we realized was that at some point, probably a potted mum had reached the end of its life, and it had been dumped into the retaining wall. We had nothing to do with this plant surviving, and the previous owners probably didn’t know that it had found new life. It’s a beautiful addition to the greenery, but these volunteer mums also encourage me in evangelism.

Sometimes we can get lost in our heads. We want to share the gospel, but we’re scared. We want to talk about Christ, but what if we don’t have all the answers? We love the idea of evangelism, but it all seems so hard. And then we see these volunteer mums. Nothing fancy.

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