Pondering Parables (Mark 4:26-34)

What is a parable? Parables are stories thrown alongside real life to illustrate or explain something. It’s a story with a lesson, a creative way to make a point, a mirror to help us see ourselves more clearly.  At the end of chapter 4 Jesus says the Kingdom of God is like a farmer who scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, while he’s asleep or awake, the seed sprouts and grows, but he does not understand how it happens. The earth produces the crops on its own. The seeds work within the earth automatically, without assistance from the farmer. It’s a good reminder that God’s kingdom is going to grow, not because of anything that I do, but because of the power inherent in the kingdom itself.  It’s tempting to look around at the world we live in and think nothing good can grow given these circumstances. Yet woven into the fabric of the universe is the promise that God’s good news will grow in us, around us, before us, and beside us.