Seed of My Heart began as a short story with the sole purpose to maintain communication with my eldest granddaughter, Madeline. I would write a few paragraphs every week, and, as I did, something happened. What began as a carefree story about the summer adventures of an old man and his grandniece sprouted into a deeper revelation about the richness of a life lived in ordinary obscurity.

The life of the main character, a single man of many years, and his borrowed, beloved family became an opportunity to reveal the power working through us when God's planted seeds become watered by the...