So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; look, new things have come into being! – 2 Corinthians 5:17, New Revised Standard Version

It is spring time and wow, there is so much growth around us. We have a community garden and I have Asian mustard greens in there. I love to see things grow.

I have I harvested a lot of mustard greens already, now the plants have shot up and have bright yellow blossoms with lots of bees enjoying their dance of pollinating them.

In a couple of weeks the blossoms will turn into silver shimmering almost transparent pods with lots of little round mustard seeds again, which I will turn into a mighty mustard, a delight to share with others.

It is always astonishing me how prodigal God’s creation is. A single mustard plant has several hundred seeds afterwards, all from just one seed. Other trees, like oaks, have thousands of seeds every year, and multiple more trees will grow from them.

Every year it is like a little miracle how things grow from the soil. I already had a good carrot harvest, onions and different cabbages are still growing, tomatoes begin to add yellow and red dots to the picture. I also put some strawberry plants in, as I admit, I love a sweet berry.

On a more personal level my bride of 38 years and I are rejoicing these days over our third grandchild. Our daughter Chrissy gave birth to a beautiful a little girl named Ruby. What a gem she is.

Presently, she is living with her husband Johannes overseas, and we luckily receive daily new pictures and videos on WhatsApp. What a joy! We are so thankful to God for this special gift. We will be reunited with them and the big Decker clan to celebrate being together.

New beginnings are somewhat magical. A verse from my late father’s favourite poem comes to mind, Hermann Hesse’s Stufen (Steps): “A magic dwells in each beginning, protecting us, telling us how to live.”

The Apostle Paul talks in 2nd Corinthians about a new beginning, a new creation. The text will be read in many churches this weekend, together with The Parable of the Lost Son in Luke 15.

New beginnings often mean change, and most of us are at least a little uncomfortable with the unfamiliar feeling that change may bring.

Our forefathers, who in many ways were more in sync with nature, knew how hard it can be to keep seeds for sowing. Some years, after a bad harvest, it meant to keep grain for sowing even though you were hungry, to allow a new beginning with spring.

As they knew, everything starts with a seed. In the creation story in Genesis 1:11 (NIV), we read: “Then God said, ‘Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.’ And it was so.”

A seed is potential, possibility, chance, and hope. However, the seed by itself has no power. We need to have the courage to plant it. It takes some work and trust to let new things grow.

In John 12:24 (NIV) Jesus says: “Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.”

At some point we start to invest in the new beginning, whether it is a seed, an education, a new family, or anything else new.

At times the harvest may not even be for us to reap. Planting a tree might mean years of waiting before it produces fruit. If our grandparents had not planted trees, we might not have apples, pears or oranges.

Planting is ongoing proof of faith. Martin Luther once said: “Even if I knew for sure that the world would come to an end tomorrow, I still would plant a little apple tree today.”

Spring is a time of renewal and an opportunity to fully embrace all the beauty and awe of life. Spring is Nature’s way to say: “Let’s party.”

No matter what season of life we are in, we let go of the past season of harvest and let new things begin.

Sometimes that may be joyful and painful at the same time. Sometimes we may harvest where we did not plant. Some seeds are for fruit to nourish people, and some seeds are for beauty, for flowers to make the world a little more colourful.

We especially love to grow sunflowers. Most people are enjoying the scent and simple beauty of the freesias and other spring flowers like Easter lilies, snap dragons and poppy flowers.

Some seeds grow without our help naturally, and others need cultivation and caring, as the Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3:6-9 (NIV): “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.

“The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labour. For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building.”

So yes, seeds can grow inside us as well, and they do. In fact, we are infused with seeds daily, from many sources: what we watch, whom we listen to and whom we hang out with, and what we do with our minds and body, which are connected.

Sometimes it is wise to do a little planing. What do we want to grow in this season? What is helpful and beautiful? It may be a time to change old thinking and start new thinking or to turn around. Sometimes we need help to find a new beginning and a new vision.

The Gospel tells us God is always willing to give us a new chance. We are not determined by our old life, nor by genes, or heritage, or hurts, or hang-ups, or habits. We can be a new creation and begin anew. Keep on keeping on.

The text from 2 Corinthians 5 I quoted above, continues: “All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.

“So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

• Karsten Decker is a German theologian with a double degree equivalent to an MTheol and MDiv. He studied in Marburg (Germany), Knoxville (USA), and Toronto (Canada) and comes from a united church of Lutheran and Reformed Churches. He was the pastor of Peace Lutheran Church in Bermuda from 2010 to 2017, and after returning from Germany is now the temporary pulpit supply at Centenary United Methodist Church in Smith’s