I was walking a path in the woods. The trees came up to the edge of the path so I could only see a few yards in front of me as the path twisted and turned. As I walked, I noticed the strangest thing.
If I thought of a chipmunk, it would run down the path in front of me. If I imaged a beautiful flower, it was there waiting for me when I made the next turn in the path.
Laughing with delight I asked, “What does this mean,” and the answer was, “The universe pre provides.”
With that answer, I woke up, and forgot all about it for a few weeks.
Then, one glorious summer’s day while standing in my kitchen and preparing the peas I had picked from the garden, I heard that idea again, “The universe pre provides.” As I stared at the beautiful green pea in my hand, I experienced a glimmer of what that might mean.
Months earlier, I had planted about 20 single pea seeds by pressing each into one of those little tiny peat pots made just for starting seeds. I planted them in late winter so they would be ready for spring. While waiting for warmer weather, I kept them warm during the cold nights, and cared for them during the chilly days, in a tiny greenhouse we kept on our porch.
Finally, many weeks later, the ground was warm enough for planting. Del and I headed outside carrying all my plastic containers filled with sprouted seeds growing inside of those little peat pots.
We had corn, peas, squash, and peppers. We laid out the garden, and then spent the entire day pressing the little pots into the ground. Although Del had prepared the soil well in the fall, we made sure to put in a bit of extra food for each seed, and then we watered them into their new home.
To protect them, we covered the garden with a netting to make sure the birds didn’t make a meal out of them. Crows had been watching us as we worked; perhaps thinking we did all that planting for them, as if the garden was their lunchroom.
Every day we checked on the garden. We watered when it was necessary and propped up drooping stems as they grew. A few weeks later, we removed the netting because they had grown too big for the crows to pull up. Then we sprayed Liquid Fence to deter the rabbits and deer from snacking on pea vines.
A few months later, I am picking multiple peas off each vine that grew from one seed, and I get a glimpse into the power of the Truth of the statement, “the universe pre provides.”
Each squash seed is now a huge plant with many squash blossoms, and by the end of summer, they will have given me at least one meal a day. They will also feed many of our neighbors as I leave the extra ones by the side of the road, for them to gather for their families. Each corn that was once just one seed stands as tall as I do, with two or three ears of corn per stalk, just a few weeks away from harvest.
What did we do to make it happen? Nothing. Yes, we cared for the idea, but we did not make the pea plant, the corn stalk, or the squash. Within the seed, the universe had pre provided the result with unbounded, infinite, and ever expanding, grace, and ease.
Opening a pea pod is like opening a door into the infinite where the great mystery of Life that always pre provides resides. The meaning can’t be fully expressed into words, but it can be felt, and it is that feeling that deepens our appreciation of the power that is the Spirit and Soul of all that makes up the universe.
We are not all planters of seeds in the ground, but we are all protectors of the many other ideas planted into our lives. All that we do springs from an idea, from what we plan to eat for dinner, to our purpose for each day.
Honoring each idea in the same way a farmer honors a seed, we see that our task is the role of caretaker and witness, because the result of every idea has already been pre provided. This is why we can always be grateful, because it is not our job, or ability, to make an idea come to fruition. That is the guaranteed outcome of Life in action.
“And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer.”* A beautiful statement, spoken thousands of years ago, preserved for us in time, teaching us that, “the universe pre provides.” Yes, it’s that simple, we just have to open ourselves to the evidence of that Truth to see.
*Isaiah 65:24, Bible
BECA LEWIS coaches, teaches, writes blogs and books, plays with art, and is addicted to reading. She lives in Ohio with her husband and has kids and grandkids scattered across the country.
