The Seed Crystal

In undergraduate chemistry labs across the country, professors demonstrate something that never fails to draw gasps. They prepare a supersaturated solution of sodium acetate — a clear liquid that looks like ordinary water but holds far more dissolved material than it can stably contain. It sits there, restless and formless, waiting.

Then the professor drops in a single tiny crystal, no larger than a grain of sand.

From that one point of contact, crystalline structures race outward in every direction. Within seconds, the entire beaker transforms from a chaotic, unstable liquid into an organized, solid crystalline mass. The molecules were always there. They simply needed something to organize around.

Proverbs 16:3 says, "Commit your works to the LORD, and your thoughts will be established." That Hebrew word for "commit" — galal — literally means to roll something onto another, the way you would roll a heavy stone off your shoulders and onto solid ground.

When our minds churn with scattered plans and anxious thoughts, they are like that supersaturated solution — full of potential but lacking structure. The moment we roll our work onto the Almighty, surrendering our plans to His purposes, He becomes the organizing center. Our swirling thoughts crystallize. Clarity forms where confusion reigned. Direction emerges from disorder.

You do not have to figure everything out first. You just have to commit. God will establish the rest.