Halfway between mainland Norway and the North Pole sits a little town called Svalbard. Polar bears outnumber people, there are no trees, and for five months the sun never sets. Most interestingly, at the edge of town near the airport sits what looks like a multi-story refrigerator stuck in a snowbank — it’s the Global Seed Vault, and it could one day save the planet.
The Global Seed Vault, nicknamed the “Doomsday Vault,” is a seed storage facility that secures the world’s largest collection of crop diversity. Countries from all over the world have entrusted millions of their seeds to this vault. In case of natural or manmade disaster, this permanently frozen bank acts as a final backup for the world’s food supply.
Studying the Global Seed Vault, I can’t help but see spiritual similarities in raising our children to know and love the Word of God. As we disciple our children and spiritual children in the Word, we are filling up a kingdom storehouse for future generations. Every verse we learn together around the table, every Psalm we sing, every time God’s word is opened and read at family worship, we are storing the word of God in their hearts. I wonder if the safest place the Word of God can rest securely is in the heart and mind of a child, a kingdom-vault able to sustain a future generation of Christ-followers even in the face of utter catastrophe, until the day the Lord returns.
Of course our children are more than Vaults; they are future temples to house the holy spirit if and when God saves them. The New Testament Pharisees memorized the entire Torah, yet their hearts were dead as they neither recognized nor adored Jesus. We aren’t interested in raising robots programmed to spit out Bible facts. We want to raise future worshippers of the lamb – something only God Himself can accomplish. We know he reveals himself and saves through his word, so we want our children to know and love it.
Seed by seed, verse by verse, studied in love and joy, we ask God to build a vault of infinite worth in their little hearts and minds. Who could calculate the value of such a storehouse?
Maybe your children are long grown and you wonder if you missed your chance to teach them the word. You haven’t. Our God delights in defying timelines. It is never too late to adore the word and disciple your (adult) children and your grandchildren. Maybe you are pouring the word of God into the next generation of your church. Praise God, and do not grow weary.
What a sacred calling it is to be a mother! So much of our day to day life is hidden, holy splendor, cloaked in (more like buried under) ordinary jars of clay. When I’m tempted to fear the coming evil of our days, I think of all those ordinary mothers bought by the blood of Jesus, leading ordinary days, teaching children and grandchildren, generation to generation in their homes and in the church, to know and love him more. Under all that ordinary, the Lord is building his kingdom. Unlike the Svylbard Seed Vault, where seeds stay permanently frozen until a crises, the Seed of the Word of God that falls on rich soil bears real living fruit (Matthew 13:23) in the lives that receive it. Keep going, mama. Keep leading your children to the word of God. Every seed matters and not one of them will return void. Build your Motherhood on the Word of God, and trust that he is building His storehouse.
1 Peter 1:22-25
Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; for
“All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.”
