The mustard seed - big results from small beginnings.
I wonder if you can recall that lesson early on in your school career where you were asked to bring a paper plate or cup and some cotton wool to school. In that school day's lesson was a study about seeds, specifically bean seeds, and how out of a hard white kidney shaped seed something green, fragile, and even beautiful would emerge and grow. As a parent it's a wonderful thing to watch, as your children discover something magical. In fact, it is magical because it's not so much the cotton wool or the water that makes the seed grow...but God who gives it life.
In today's scripture we read about a mustard seed, which is one of the smallest seeds known to us. Jesus talks about how this small seed grows into a large shrub and into something that will give shelter to the birds. Yes, mustard seeds are small and yes, they do sprawl and grow into bushes, but this choice of seed and plant was surprising. The mustard seed is small and insignificant, and the bush that it grows into is short and scruffy. Why didn't Jesus choose a Cedar Tree seed, a seed that grows into something more majestic, regal, and grand and liken that to the Kingdom of God?
Well, I think that was the point! You see Jesus is speaking to the fact that small things planted with God, can grow and spread rapidly but more importantly can become something that serves others (birds of the air).
Friends, often we get caught up with how things should start and what something should look like, and the proper way to go about growing the kingdom of God that we don't do it. Instead, we are being called to trust God even with our small and possibly insignificant plans or ideas, and then to trust Him to grow that into something beautiful that will be of service to others.
| Again he said, "What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest seed you plant in the ground. Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds of the air can perch in its shade." (Mark4:30-32 ) |
Melanie Cook, a novice thrower of seeds in and around St Giles Presbyterian Church, Gordon's wife, Josh and Becky's mom.
