The Promise Planted in Johnny Appleseed's Footsteps

In the early 1800s, a barefoot man named John Chapman walked hundreds of miles across Ohio and Indiana, planting apple nurseries in clearings he would never farm. He didn't build orchards for himself. He planted seeds for settlers who hadn't yet arrived, for children who hadn't yet been born. Chapman died in 1845 near Fort Wayne, Indiana, owning little more than the clothes on his back. But today, thousands of apple trees across the Midwest trace their roots to his faithful, patient work.

When David told the prophet Nathan he wanted to build God a house, the Lord flipped the promise entirely. "I will establish a house for you," God declared — not a house of cedar and stone, but a dynasty, a lineage, a kingdom without end. David would not build the temple. His son would. And through that line, the Almighty would do something David could barely imagine.

This is how God so often works. He takes our small, sincere offerings and stretches them across generations we will never meet. David wanted to give God a building. God gave David an eternal covenant: "Your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever."

Like Chapman scattering seeds along muddy frontier paths, David planted faithfulness — and God grew a kingdom. The promise was never just for David. It was for every generation that would follow, all the way to us.