When the Rain Speaks
Celebrating God’s Presence in Nature by: Melannie Svoboda, S.N.D.
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Recently I read that Israeli scientists have succeeded in getting a two-thousand-year-old date palm seed to germinate and produce a healthy sapling. (They appropriately nicknamed the sapling Methuselah.) Imagine: That seed lay dormant somewhere for two thousand years! No sun. No moisture. No conditions conducive to germination. But when the scientists provided the necessary conditions, the seed not only sprouted, it produced a sapling. I also learned that date palms are either male or female and although researchers do not yet know the gender of the sapling, they are hoping it is a female so it will produce fruit. (I guess they will have to change its name to Methuselina!)

The researchers have another reason to be excited about the little sapling. Throughout the centuries, date palm trees have been known for their medicinal properties. The researchers are wondering if this particular sapling might have healing properties no longer found in today’s date palm varieties. The story makes me wonder: What cures still lay undiscovered in the berries, leaves, and roots all over this planet?

For me that two-thousand-year-old date palm seed is a symbol of hope. I read somewhere that hope is “revolutionary patience.” I like that. It reminds me that it takes considerable patience to be a person of hope. And it takes a ready willingness to work. Eric Fromm said that those whose hope is weak “settle down for comfort or violence.” But those whose hope is strong “see and cherish all signs of new life.” In addition, they are “ready at every moment to help the birth of that which is ready to be born.”