Seeds are amazing. By looking at a seed, it is impossible to know exactly what that seed has the potential to become. And yet within the seed are the essentials of what it will become. All that is necessary is being scattered or planted in the right soil with the right conditions.

Although Jesus spoke about seeds, using an object everyone would understand, he was not giving a lesson in agriculture. His message was and is the kingdom of God. The seed/kingdom grows secretly, doing its own thing unobserved in the earth, and eventually the stalk appears, then the ear of corn and the swelling corn inside the ear. When ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come. Jesus has quoted Joel 3:13 – there is a coming Day of the Lord, the consummation of God’s kingdom.

Remember who your God is and what Jesus promised. In Mark’s gospel, this small beginning (just Jesus and twelve disciples) is the start of God’s intended kingdom – the kingdom that will eventually provide shade for the whole world. The seeds are scattered – in you and me – God knows what can grow if we will provide the right conditions.