The Acorn and the Oak Many things in life are well illustrated by the accorn and the oak. They could be as readily illustrated, most of them, by the catipillar and the butterfly. Or by the brilliant egg and the robin. The seed and the egg undergo an inescapable development, profound and irreversable. Death might arrest the change in appearance, but nothing less could avert it. Before exploring the nature of this development notice that there is only one scientific name for the acorn and the oak. An embryionic bluebird is identical at the celluar level to the pale-plumed veteran on the fence. The beautiful luna moth carries millions of genes identical at the core to those he possessed when scaring first-grade girls. Emphatically, the accorn and the oak are the same. They have the same nature; one is the destiny, the other an iffalible omen. One might say that development is not transformation. It is more akin to the conclusion after impeccable logic than to a change in the topic of conversation. Keep reading. This is not philosophy. I am speaking of a type of relationship that abouds in reality and ought to exert more influence on our thinking than it does. In the same way that the sunflower seed is a sunflower, sin is death. It is not necessary to say that sin causes death. The seed is death itself. Where sin is death will be, and that without a need for any organic change or transformation. It is the destiny of the sin to end in death. And faith is righteousness in the same way. The nature of the faith seed makes right doing inevitable. This is the meaning of I Jn. 3:9 "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remains in him, and he cannot sin, because he is born of God." Showing compassion is receiving mercy. You sow one and reap the other and that is evidence enough that they are the same. Appetite is corruption. There are many plants