Tree planting has a day on the calendar.

So does reading, teen mental wellness, grandparents and even chocolate cake (January 27)! But soil had a whole year named in its honor.

Soil is considered so important to life, that the year 2015 was named the International Year of Soils.

Soil is the foundation for all the earth’s ecosystems. Not only does it filter our water and regulate temperature, but it feeds our oxygen-producing forests and the plants that feed the animals, that feed us. That dark, wet stuff, makes all life possible.

But being stuck in the dark isn’t much fun.

Perhaps seeds, if they had the ability to speak, wouldn’t choose to spend time hidden in soil. Seeds, if they had a mind to understand, wouldn’t want that pulverized rock and microbes from the decaying plants and animals all around them. But our world needs seeds to succumb to soil, to wait days, week, months (if you’re a tulip bulb) in the chilly underworld. We’d have no food, no oxygen, no life without the sacrifice of seeds.

We too are buried. Hidden. We are buried in Christ. Our world needs us there. Perhaps at times, this self-sacrifice isn’t physically pleasant, but hiding in God’s soil nourishes our soul. Look heavenward: you are growing into something beautiful!