Israeli Scientists Germinate
2000 Yr Old Palm Tree Seed
By Tamara Traubman
A group of Israeli scientists has managed recently to germinate a 2000-year-old palm tree seed discovered at Masada. It is the oldest seed to have been successfully sprouted by this team of researchers. The researcher heading the team believes this is the world's oldest seed to have been successfully cultivated.
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The seed, named Methuselah, has sprouted to a height of about 30 centimeters, has six leaves and is kept under close inspection at Kibbutz Ketura in the Negev.
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The seed was uncovered in excavations carried out at Masada in the 70s and was then sent for carbon testing in Switzerland which dated them as being 1990 years old, meaning they were around at the site when Romans lay siege to a group of Jewish rebels who chose to take their own lives rather than surrender.
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Dr. Elaine Salon, the pediatrician, and gastroenterologist at the head of the research team admitted that when she first started out "I estimated there was about a zero percent chance of success".
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First, she soaked the seeds in hot water, then she spread a special fertilizer made from seaweed over them and then planted them in a pot. A few weeks later, a small sprout emerged from the ground.
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Saturday at an outreach event, the children there were asked what they wanted to be when they grew up. They were told whatever that goal was could be achieved. I remembered being asked that same question when I was a child many years ago. I too was told I could do it. Those seeds that were planted in me long ago remained and have just recently started to germinate, sprout, and make me want to be who God created me to be.
I wondered in ten, twenty, or thirty years how many of those children would remember this day and this question being asked. I prayed this small seed being planted would remain and give them hope and a desire to be all that God created them to be. Even if those around them think there is a zero percent chance of them succeeding, I pray they succeed. Even if it takes several years for the seeds to germinate I pray each child will be able to emerge and do great things in their lives through Christ and for Christ.
The article above about the 2000-year-old seed gives a lot of hope to each of us. No matter how old we may be, no matter how long ago seeds were planted in us, no matter how long ago we planted seeds in someone else, it's never too late. Those seeds remain and can still germinate and grow into all they were meant to be. No matter what the world tells us, with Jesus the percentage rate for a chance for each of us emerging to reach our goals is great and mighty.