A Seedling

I watched Matt Damon in “The Martian” on a flight from Montreal to Fort Lauderdale three weeks ago.  Here is the setup – a sudden and violent storm causes a team of astronauts on Mars to abruptly abort their mission and evacuate.  Watney, one of the astronauts, is literally blown away, injured, left behind, presumed dead. 

He regains consciousness some hours later and realizes that he is alone.  After treating his injuries, Watney assesses the immense task of surviving a year or two on Mars.  Survival requires food.  He brings in loads of dirt and spreads it out, fertilizes it, waters it and waits.

One morning Watney enters the greenhouse chamber of the Mars Module and is greeted with little spots of green – seedlings emerging from the dirt!  The scene is an emotional high point, excitement and optimism abound.

A seedling is little more than potential.  It has no fruit.  It is small and fragile.  Yet the seedling is crucial, it is proof that something has happened beneath the surface.  It points forward to production of food which will sustain Watney in a completely alien environment until he can be rescued.

The Regenerate logo has a seedling in the middle of it.   Something has happened deep inside, we have been made into a new creation.  There is external evidence of that internal change.  There might not be much fruit yet.  It will come.  We will water and wait. 

Excitement and optimism abound!