Striving to be a small seed

There’s a lot of distrust and a lack of faith in our world leaders these days, especially in the US. That distrust is manifesting itself in behaviors and speech by a lot of normally kind and gentle people who would rather be more focused on hope and tranquility.   I think the more distressing aspect of today’s world—and the root cause of the apparent hatred and division—is our lack of faith and confidence in Christ and the hope he promises all of us who do believe.

The idea of trusting something (or someone) we cannot see is not a natural human characteristic.  As humans we are accustomed to only trust those things that we can see and touch.  This makes faith in Christ difficult because we can’t see him.  However, if we nurture our faith in Christ it is able to grow and produce incredible fruit.  The mustard seed is the smallest of seeds, but when it is planted and nurtured it can grow to become a large bush, sometimes so large some call it a tree.

So too it is with our faith.  When we first gain our faith in Christ it often starts as a small inclination, a mustard seed.  However, we watch our faith grow to become a magnificent thing.  As “birds of the sky dwelt in [the mustard bush’s] branches” people will also flock to those who have a high level of faith.  This is something that can be found to be true when we have our faith severely tested.  We usually find the people in our lives that have strong faith and we run to them with our challenges.  These people help to show us the importance of faith and how it can be applied in our lives. 

In my life I’ve had the privilege to know several “mustard seeds” of my own faith formation; my parents and grandparents, my siblings, my wife, my children and yes, even my grandchildren.  Included in this are also my coworkers and friends.  Each of these people have strengthened me in times of doubt or insecurity or grief through their prayers and examples.

As my own faith increases, I hope that I can be a similar rock for my peers.  When they are having challenges in their life, I pray that I can be the one that helps them through and allows them to recognize God’s role in their lives.  This is the calling of Luke 13:18-22 when Jesus talks about the birds flocking to the mustard bush.  We must be there for our peers to help them recognize God in every aspect of their lives, especially when they are in challenging times.