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Many people have vegetable gardens. They usually provide a steady supply of fresh produce through the summer months. Some seeds that are planted are fairly large and easy to plant. Others are very small and hard to see.
The size of the seed doesn’t always indicate how large the plant will be. Sometime a small seed can grow into a very large plant, even outpacing the size of plants from larger seeds.
My grandparents had a garden for years. They had tomatoes, corn, beans, potatoes, onions, radishes, peas, and okra. Now my grandfather loved to put out the garden, but he couldn’t stand okra. He didn’t like how it tasted or felt but he agreed to plant it for my great-grandmother on the condition that he wouldn’t have to touch it after it was planted.
Okra seeds are pretty small, but they can grow fairly tall. One year my grandfather purchased a special kind of okra that grew exceptionally tall. He did this partly out of his disdain for the vegetable and also in hopes that it would discourage my great-grandmother, all 4 feet 9 inches of her, from harvesting it from plants that were almost twice as tall as she was.
I’ve got to admit that it was pretty funny to watch her cut off that okra. She would have to grab the stalk and then pull it over while walking away. Only then was she able to reach the pods and cut them off.
It’s really hard to imagine that something so small could produce something so large and to do so in just a matter of weeks. But then we can easily underestimate the potential in small things.
Jesus taught a parable about a small seed, the mustard seed. Although it is not technically the smallest of any seed, it does grow to be large. In Palestine, the mustard shrub will grow to about ten or twelve feet tall and has a wide spread of branches.
We find this parable in Mark 4:30-32; Luke 13:18-19 and this reading from Matthew 13:31-32.
Another parable He put forth to them, saying: "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field, which indeed is the least of all the seeds; but when it is grown it is greater than the herbs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches."
Jesus is teaching about the influence that the church will have on the world. Although it will have a small start, it will quickly grow and prosper in the world.
Jesus uses the mustard seed on two other occasions with his disciples. In Matthew 17:20, Jesus says, “I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.”
And in Luke 17:6, He says, “If you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.”
In both of these additional passages the mustard seed is shown to be something of great potential from a modest beginning.
Many people underestimate the value of the Christian way today. But we should never doubt what God asks us to accomplish. When Jesus was about to feed five thousand people he asked the disciples for their input. He was testing their faith. How would it be possible to feed these people? They had no food and their money would not buy enough for all to eat.
Andrew found a small boy with five barley loaves and two small fish. “But what are they among so many?” he asked Jesus. But from those small morsels of food Jesus gave thanks to God and fed those five thousand people until they were all filled.
At times we may find ourselves skeptical of what God wishes for us to accomplish. Like Andrew we may openly ask, “What is my contribution compared to the needs of so many.” But like the disciples we should learn that God intends for great things to come from small beginnings.
The one life you help turn to Jesus today has the potential of turning untold numbers of others to Him as well.
On Our Daily Walk today, may we never underestimate the power of God and never underestimate the power that your faith and actions have on others.
Our thought for the day: “One should never be ashamed of small beginnings; it is the small growth that disappoints.”
May God bless you on your daily walk.
© Our Daily Walk, Mike Baker, 2007. Permission is granted to copy these articles provided they are not sold and the author's name and copyright are included.
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