Lessons from a Watermelon


[304 words]

William Jennings Bryan wrote of a visit he made to a restaurant in which he ordered a slice of watermelon.

He writes, “I was so pleased with the taste of the melon that I took the seeds home with me to plant in my garden. That night a thought came to my mind. How many watermelon seeds would it take to make a pound? The next day I weighed them and found that it would take about 5,000 dried seeds to weigh one pound. A few weeks later I planted just one of the seeds. Under the influence of sunshine and shower, the little seed had taken off its coat and gone to work. It had gathered from somewhere two hundred thousand times its own weight, and forced the enormous weight through a tiny stem and built a watermelon. On the outside it had a covering of green and within a rind of white, and within that a core of red; and then it had scattered through the red many little black seeds each one capable of doing the same thing over again.”

He continues, “What architect drew the plan? Where did that little seed get its tremendous strength? Where did it find its flavoring, extract, and coloring matter? How did it build a watermelon? Until you can explain a watermelon, do not be too sure that you can set limits to the power of the Almighty. The most learned men in the world cannot explain a watermelon, but the most ignorant man can eat one and enjoy it. God has given us the knowledge necessary to use those things, and the truth He has revealed to us is infinitely more important for our welfare than it would be to understand the mysteries that He has seen fit to conceal from our faltering view.”

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