Maple Seeds

When I was a kid, my sister and brother and I used to love collecting maple seeds and throwing them into the air.  If you aren’t familiar with the word “maple seeds”, you might recognize the word, “helicopters”. Have you seen these things?  They usually start to fall in the spring, just as the tree’s branches are pushing out bright green leaves. There are a surprising number of games you can play with them, for being seeds:  “Peel It” (peel the brittle outside layer off so you can get to the soft, green seed); “Throw It!” (throw them up into the air and watch them fall), and finally, best of all, “Catch It!” (wait under a maple tree to see who can catch one mid-fall).  See? Tons of fun with maple trees. (Can you tell my siblings and I didn’t have video games growing up? And Netflix wasn’t even a thing!)

  I didn’t pay much attention to what happened to those seeds until I was an adult.  But I have become absolutely fascinated with the structure of these little guys! Have you ever paid attention to how they fall?  I mean, really watched them carefully?  I give you permission to stop reading RIGHT!NOW! so you can go outside and observe.  Find a maple tree (the leaves look like the one on the Canadian flag) and notice what lies below.  Better yet, catch one in mid-air and just follow it as it drops! (Did you do it?)

If you don’t have a maple tree, or just didn’t feel like stopping, I understand.  So I’ll tell you what happens: the seed drops first! And the feathery part at the top?  It acts as a wing or helicopter blade, spinning around as it falls. If it falls in grass, it is perfectly positioned, seed down!  Do you realize how important this is?  It’s almost like it was specifically designed to fall so that the seed would be right next to the soil, so that, once rain came, the seed would be in a perfect position to sprout and grow a new maple tree.  Is your mind blown???  

Well if you’ve read anything else we’ve written, you might guess that we think it absolutely was designed that way.  On purpose. Thanks to gravity, that heavy seed always falls first.  And do you think it plants itself right next to the parent tree? Well, maybe in some cases.  But most of the time, thanks to the gentle breezes that blow, the seeds fly just far enough away that they are out of the shade of the parent tree and can find a new place to grow, smack dab in the middle of the sun.  The life cycle of a maple tree is an amazing thing to ponder.  And so is our God! Because, in order for the maple seed to have a successful life cycle, several scientific systems had to be in place:  gravity is necessary to cause the seed to drop, seed first. The turning of the Earth and the sun’s heating effect are absolutely vital to create a breeze that will blow that maple seed into a sunny patch, and the greenhouse effect, which allows water to accumulate, then evaporate, then condense and then precipitate--all allow rain to fall and nourish that seed!  Think of how much work and organization and creativity and structure it took for God to make a maple tree! So many amazing things happen on our planet because of the scientific laws at work. And even though these laws seem routine and impersonal, they work together in such a way that the Earth showcases God’s glory: beauty and wonder and awe! Our hearts are turned to Him and we grow more and more in love with our Creator.  God loves it when we love Him with our hearts and our minds!