“Then said he , Unto what is the kingdom of God like? and whereunto shall I resemble it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took , and cast into his garden; and it grew , and waxed a great tree; and the fowls of the air lodged in the branches of it. And again he said , Whereunto shall I liken the kingdom of God? It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened . ”
- Luke 13:18-21
I suddenly got this image in my head of a field of weeds. How ugly it was, how hard it would be to make it fertile soil. How painful it is to walk through the stickers (or prickers, depending on what part of the country you are from ;P). And the Kingdom of God is like planting a mustard seed, the smallest of all known seeds, in the middle of that field. And how that mustard seed overcomes the weeds to sprout, undeterred. And then it grows up, bears fruit, and makes more seeds, which sprout and grow undeterred, and so on until that one mustard seed has completely overcome the entire field.
And leavening. How you put some yeast in the bread and it grows. It multiplies. Like those friendship bread recipes that continue to grow and grow and grow until you have so much you don’t have enough friends to give it to, it’s running out your ears, and you throw it all away. ahha! Again, this is what the kingdom of God is like. Slow, steady, undeterred, always triumphant, victorious, unceasing, undefeated, unquestionably, undoubtingly.
So the field is my life and the weeds my problems. And no matter how much I batter myself against them, they always come back and retake all the ground I’ve gained. But, when Christ came into my life, the Mustard Seed was planted. All I need to do is let it grow. Sometimes I try to tear up the weeds for It, but all that does is cause me unnecessary hardship and pain. The Mustard Seed won’t grow any faster than it wants no matter how much ground I tell it to take and when. Plus the weeds always come back. I can’t get rid of them like the Mustard Seed can. Sometimes, it doesn’t seem the Mustard Seed takes over certain areas at all while I’m sitting there begging It to hurry up and take care of this certain weed right here that’s super painful!!! And suddenly, It pops up and that weed is vanquished. And I wonder why I fretted over it at all.
Don’t fear the weeds. They’re already defeated, they just don’t know it yet. If the Seed has been planted in your life, then He is growing, undeterred, unstoppable, unceasingly. You have been given the grace to deal with the weeds until the Mustard Seed overtakes them. Hang in there.
