The Apple Seed

There was a man who had 5 sons. “We are going to the newly plowed field,” he said, “the one where the road turns into our estate.” On their way out to the field, the Father stopped by the apple tree at the front gate and picked up an apple that had fallen to the ground. Once at the field he had them gather around him. “Watch, and I will ask you a question,” he said to them.

The man split the apple open and retrieved a single seed from it. He bent down and planted the seed in the dirt, smoothing the soil with his hand.

Turning to his youngest son, he asked him, “What do you see?” The son looked at the bare ground, then to his Father, then to the ground again as if this were a trick question. “Dirt!” he replied. “I see dirt.”

The father said nothing.

The second son jumped in and responded to his brother, “No, you’re missing the point. Look beyond what you see on the surface. It is a seed, planted in the dirt.”

The third son corrected the second brother, saying, “But my brother, look even further. It’s not just a seed, it’s a tree! An apple tree. Look at what can be, not what is. This is the point.”

Still the Father did not say anything, but looked at the forth son and raised an eyebrow. “And you, my son? What do you see?”

The fourth son pondered for a moment. “I see an orchard of apple trees.” The Father turned his head as if to look out over the empty field, but his eyes were closed. He nodded slowly in silence. Then turning to look at the fifth son, his firstborn, the Father asked, “And you my son, what do you see?”

The fifth son spoke his thoughts. “I see a business employing many people. Some to tend the orchard, others to harvest the fruit, still others to trade in the marketplace. The orchard will provide food and jobs to the people in town, and people from all around will come to our estate to celebrate an annual harvest. The abundance will launch new businesses in our town and spawn trade with other towns nearby.

The first son interjected, “But Father, none of us standing here will ever see this orchard or all this stuff about a business—by then our bones will be buried in the family plot!”

The Father smiled. “Exactly, my son. I have worked a lifetime to leave you an inheritance. Build upon what I leave you. Increase it. The increase is not for yourself, but for your sons and daughters and their children’s children. They will inherit what you plant today.”