18He said, “What is God’s kingdom like? To what can I compare it? 19It is like a mustard seed which someone plants in his garden. It grew and became a tree and the birds in the sky came and perched on its branches.†— Luke 13:18-19 (HN)
Henry Neufeld
[reprinted from November 16, 2009]
We like to get things fast. We like to see the connections and to know just how we got whatever we got. This desire for “instant gratification†is often an accusation of the older generation of the younger, or of our various preachers or moral leaders of this generation as opposed to all generations. But really, it’s just a human thing. We all like it. I preach patience, but all too often I practice impatience. If I manage to appear patient, be assured that it’s only by the grace of God! If I don’t appear patient, well, I’m human.
I have even thought that Adam and Eve may have failed precisely on the point of timing. Many times we ask why God would make a perfect garden and yet place in it a tree that was poisonous not just to those who might eat it, but to all their descendants, to an entire species. But perhaps the tree represents something necessary, and that knowledge of good and evil was something that would have to come sometime, but in God’s timing. That would explain the tree being there, but being forbidden. Adam and Eve couldn’t wait. I could be wrong on this, but it’s intriguing.
But whether it started with Adam and Eve or not, it certainly is pervasive. Waiting, trusting, receiving without knowing—all these things really get on our last nerve! But God tends to work with greater subtlety.
We encounter this problem in evangelism. Someone shares their faith with a friend or neighbor, and gets no response. What happens? They get impatient, even desperate. Who can I get to persuade them? Why are they so slow? Surely they understand the importance.
But God says that the kingdom works like a tiny seed. You plant it. It grows. It becomes something much more than you thought when you did the planting. But for many of us this isn’t good enough. God should get in there and fix things now, while I’m watching. And somewhere in there we might even be thinking, “. . . and I should get the credit.â€
Seed sowing is a principle of God’s kingdom. It means that God uses things that don’t look like much to accomplish things that are really quite incredible. That means that we will often not be able to get the connections, see the work go on, or account for the credit due to the various workers involved.
The same is true in your own life. The gospel is trying to grow inside you and transform you. You may wish that you had patience right now, so that you could accept this sowing principle in your heart, but God is likely to grow you up slowly. God is not a God of instant gratification.
What seeds is God nurturing in your heart?
Though it tarries, wait for it!†— Habakkuk 2:1 (HN)
Revelation Song written by Jennie Lee Riddle and sung by Phillips, Craig, & Dean
