A Tree Fail

When Jesus wanted to illustrate a powerful spiritual truth, He told stories. In fact, about a third of his Words are stories or parables. There are about 40 of them in the gospels. The idea of a parable is that Jesus would take an occurrence from everyday life, something people saw every day, and throw that story alongside a truth about the Kingdom of God. In fact, the word parable means “to throw alongside.” Ever see a poor woman desperately searching for her lost coin or a shepherd trying to save His lost sheep? Jesus would say, “If you’ve ever seen that then you know something about God’s heart for lost people.” He would spin ordinary stories from everyday life that illustrated the complex truths of the Kingdom of God. He told stories about corrupt judges, stubborn widows, buried treasure, lazy employees, bad debts and noisy neighbors, and people got it. They understood the truth about God for the very first time. They didn’t need a seminary or college degree. For over 2,000 years, these stories have stretched the greatest minds in the world and sustained simpler ones. They have pierced the hardest hearts and shaped the greatest souls to ever walk our planet. That’s why right up into June, we are going to invest ourselves in these stories. And I believe God is going to encourage and grow us like never before, because that is what good stories do.