The Seed That Refused to Forget

In 2005, Dr. Sarah Sallon planted a seed that had no business growing. Recovered from the ruins of Masada during excavations in the 1960s, the Judean date palm seed had sat in a drawer for decades. Radiocarbon dating confirmed it was roughly two thousand years old — a relic from the time of Christ. Every reasonable expectation said it was dead.

Dr. Sallon and botanist Elaine Solowey soaked the ancient seed in warm water and fertilizer, placed it in soil, and waited. Six weeks later, a green shoot broke through. They named the seedling Methuselah. Today it stands as a full-grown tree, producing fruit from a species that had been extinct for centuries.

Two thousand years in the dark. Two thousand years of silence. And still, buried inside that tiny husk, life was waiting.

Hope works like that. There are seasons when everything in us feels dried out, stored away, forgotten. Grief sits heavy. Prayers feel like they vanish into silence. We look at our circumstances and see no reasonable expectation that anything will change.

But the God who spoke life into the first garden has never stopped speaking. El Shaddai, the Almighty, buries resurrection power in places the world has declared dead.

You may feel like that ancient seed — dormant, forgotten, long past your moment. But God wastes nothing. Your spring is not cancelled. It is coming.