Vacationing in Arizona during the autumn of the year, a student of Christian Science, wandering over the large open expanse of the desert, noticed spring flowers on all sides and in great variety. How strange, she thought, that these lovely flowers should be blooming late in the season! Upon inquiry she was told that the spring and summer had been barren, because no rains had fallen at the accustomed time. And previous to her visit to the desert there had been weeks of rain. Therefore the flowers which usually brightened the desert in early spring and summer were bringing color and gaiety in the late autumn.
The seeds had been in the parched earth throughout many months, and awaited only the moisture of the rains. They had been safely protected and preserved in their shells until enough moisture penetrated the hard outer covering. Then the orderly unfolding of growth began, and soon the flowers blossomed.
Later the student read an account of seeds that had been lying dormant for forty years, and when planted in fertile soil brought forth fruitage; and also of seeds found in the Pyramids which had lain inactive for centuries, yet which sent out roots when planted and cultivated. In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mary Baker Eddy writes in her exegesis of Genesis (p. 520): "Here is the emphatic declaration that God creates all through Mind, not through matter,—that the plant grows, not because of seed or soil, but because growth is the eternal mandate of Mind."
