Transcript:

In the beginning, I was only a seed. Encased by dirt surrounding, toxic waste abounding; it was dark. I knew nothing but this.

But slowly I began to taste that blessed first drop of water. He said, "Drink, drink of my water and never thirst again,” so I drank, and I drank. Then God, He said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation,” and I sprang from the dirt, rapidly I grew, toward the sun I shot up.

And so it was, the first Season of Spring.

My soul would sing at the mere mention of his name, and like the queen of Bing I searched on for his wisdom. I was soaked, I was soaked with the riches of his word, and he cloaked, how he cloaked all my wounds with his stitches. “Praise be to the King,” my heart would ring. Then the water I was given became a spring of water,
welling up--out of my heart flowed rivers I could no longer contain--so I sprang forward, from Spring, to...

Summer.

My leaves began to grow full and green, and I knew there was fruit to be beared. He said, “Whoever abides in me and I in him bears much fruit,” and abide in the vine I did. For he had seasoned me with the good news, and I was zealous to spread it. Afire, I never tired, I aspired that my friends would find this higher purpose, I begged that he’d be their desire, I pleaded that they would acquire the good news, I prayed that he would rewire their ways. My flowers spread seeds, far and wide, and people saw my good works and said, "Glory to the Father!"

And I begged them to eat my fruit. “Eat!” I yelled, but they turned away. “Eat! Eat!” I became overzealous, began shooting bullets fired with my presumptuous knowledge rather than God’s extravagant compassion, began seeing my good works and saying glory to me, and as summer came to a close, I forgot that God had my days numbered, and my heart grew number, and soon I began to...

Fall.

The forbidden fruit was eaten, falling through my inner tubes, where it festered and clung to my lungs, pestered my heart and spread, like a fatal disease, I was suffocating under the weight of my own godless mistakes, and I. Couldn’t. Breathe. The sin pinned me against the wall, and I tried not to fall, I called as I bawled--"Lord deliver me, deliver me!" I examined myself and saw my need for a doctor, but I was appalled by how my coat of leaves fell quickly into the gutter. I likened myself to Saul, a king fallen from his glory. It was only Autumn, but like Sodom and Gomorrah I burned with lustful desires and evil
thoughts. “Forgive me, forgive me!” daily I cried.

I heard my savior quietly whisper--"Forgive them, for they know not what they do"--a mediator, intercessing on my behalf, but I was numb.

Winter came like a splinter in my side, I’d been stripped of my clothes--all my leaves rotten on the ground--and what was left was what seemed to be a barren and wasted land. With my branches bare and naked and my feet entangled in thorns, I screamed, “Have you forsaken me?!” The shrill winds whistled against my bones, they teased me as they sang, “Where is your God? Where is he now?”

But in the quiet I heard him speak--

"I will never leave nor forsake you. I will never leave nor forsake you. I never have, and I never will."

He said,

"You’ve been stripped of your clothes, but I have not yet left. You’ve been entangled in thorns, but I have not yet left. You’ve forsaken me seventy fold times, but I have not yet left. You have blasphemed my name, you have mocked me to the skies, you have violated my image, and you have forgotten my promises, but I have not yet left. Because
I, too, was once stripped of my clothes, with a crown of thorns placed on my head so that you, my child, can be clothed in red and scarlet robes, adorned with gold jewelry, for you are my child, adopted as an heir into my family, and I will never leave nor forsake you."

And slowly I began to grow again, the season of spring here to return once again, each season that passed shaping me into someone who surpassed all expectations of who I’d become.

Now Kaptivated has been seasoned with a gift of song, so listen closely to what we’ve been seasoned to spread: the good news of a risen Christ, Hallelujah above! So listen closely, listen closely, to this song of four seasons.