Sabina knew her father well. She knew now was the time for her to be silent and wait. Many things were revolving in his mind, and he would tell her when he was ready. If she became impatient, the thoughts now brewing within him might not reach fruition and she might never be privileged to hear them. She loved to see this process at work, and loved him a little more deeply every time she was thus able to drink of his wisdom.

She sat, regaining her breath, and waited.

The baron sat, also silent, peacefully, even reverently rubbing the kernels of wheat and rye between his hands and fingers, until in his palm rested a dozen or two tiny pieces of the green grain.

“In another month it will be golden and ready for the sickle,” he mused at length.

He tossed them about in his hand a moment, then put all but one in his pocket. That one he handed to Sabina.

“The mystery of life itself is in that one tiny grain. Do you know where, Sabina?”

“Inside, in the germ.”

“Yes, where men’s eyes cannot see it.”

He took it back, then carefully split it apart with the nail of his finger. “There, you see—the white pulp of the germ!”

He beheld it a moment, then tossed it in his mouth and ground it between his teeth.

“Oh, Papa!” laughed Sabina, “you love everything that grows, don’t you?”

“I am curious to find God’s life wherever it exists in everything!”

From his other pocket the baron pulled the egg he had carefully stored there after they had passed the henhouse on their walk. This he now handed to his daughter.

“And where is the life here?” he said.

“In the yolk. You taught me that years ago.”

He laughed. “Do you tire of my lessons, Sabina?”

“Never, Papa!”

“So then, what do all three have in common—the egg, the kernel of wheat, and the dirt?”

“They all contain life.”

“Hidden life!” rejoined the baron. “Life that is invisible except to those eyes that search for it—and therein lies the mystery!”

“But why, Papa?” asked Sabina. “I still do not see why it should be so.”

“Ah yes. The question of the ages, Sabina. I had not forgotten that you had asked it. That is the reason I took you on our little walk to find the wheat and the egg, as my way of getting around to an answer.”

He fell silent, then glanced slowly around at all the beauty of the garden around them.

“God’s ways are often curious, and full of mystery,” he said. “Why is it that he always seems to hide truth? There are many things about our Father I do not understand, Sabina, and that is one of them!