the strength of small things

One hip leaning against the counter, I was present with the post-Christmas clean-up but not exactly contributing. None of us were, really - we were all just kind of waiting on Amy to tell us what to do next with everything that was still sitting around. We were mostly all standing there in the fellowship hall kitchen just keeping each other company. Absentmindedly, I grabbed a bag of sunflower seeds that had served as part of the salad bar and glanced at the nutrition panel on the back. "Did you know?!" I asked, bewildered. "There are 180 calories in just 2 tablespoons of sunflower seeds." "Well that's just one more reason why I don't eat sunflower seeds", Kristin quipped. But Seth's comment was thought-provoking: "Well think about it. Seeds have to have the strength to push the entire plant up through the ground."

Honestly, I had never thought about it.

That is astounding. How something as tall and strong and mighty as a sunflower can grow out of one. tiny. thing. Seeds must carry so much strength.

We read that, of course, in the parable of the mustard seed in Matthew 13: "He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches"

The smallest of us can become a refuge for others, when we allow the seed of God to take root in our hearts. This is an incredibly powerful parable.

I read John Eldredge's "Resilient" last week, and he comments on the verse that comes next in Matthew 13: "He told them another parable. “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened.”

Eldredge explains that the leavening is a slow process. Those of us who make bread know this. It is not that the power does not exist within the yeast, it is that the power is released slowly and over time, as it comes into contact with new parts of the dough. Even as believers who have been serving the Lord for 10, or 20, or 30 years, or much longer - there are still within us "unleavened parts" as Eldredge refers to them. We can ask God to continue to convert our unconverted parts. And, there are parts of us that have not yet touched others in the way they will in the coming years. The leaven that is running in us and through us is slowly working - neither we, nor our assigned work here on earth, is finished.

A day or two after I read that, I started an enormous batch of sourdough discard waffles that was way too big for my mixing bowl. I already kind of knew it wasn't all going to fit, but then I added the baking powder and as the top portion of the mixture began to foam and overflow first, I knew I was seeing Eldredge's words in action. The top portion of the dough was expanding first, because it had touched the baking powder first. But eventually, once I got a bigger bowl, it would all mix together and the baking powder would impact all of the dough evenly.

I did get a bigger bowl. But I was grateful for the opportunity to see the impact of a large amount of baking powder on a small amount of dough first. Seeds, yeast, baking powder... these are small things that have a large impact on the things that they come into contact with.

We watched Unsung Hero recently - a family history/biography of the band "For King and Country" who immigrated to the U.S. under less-than-ideal circumstances. The movie highlights the faithfulness of the mother of the family in large, spiritual ways and in small, creative ways and how her compelling leadership and unwavering optimism steered the family through very difficult and adverse times. She was making small choices every day, unknowingly raising three worship artists while also cultivating all of the other strengths and talents in her other children. Her ability to make much out of little, because of her faith in God, will inspire me continuously.

This opportunity is open to every mother, and to every Christian - and especially to every Christian mother. However small the task we are given, and however small the resources - the strength exists for it to grow and multiply.

Recently our family was listening to the story of Adam & Eve via Adventum, an audio drama of the Bible. It's easy to miss in the broader storyline, but at one point Adam, as he bites into a fruit, reaches the core and wonders, "What is this?"

It's the seed, he realizes. God, as a perfectly good Creator, created everything with the ability to reproduce. The seed was there from the beginning, prepared for a cycle of consumption and new life, given so that there would always be more.

Here it is again in Luke 13:18-21: "He said, therefore, "What is the kingdom of God like? And to what shall I compare it? It is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his garden, and it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air made nests in its branches." And again he said, "To what shall I compare the kingdom of God? It is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, until it was all leavened."

As sowers here on the earth, we are daily tucking leaven into lives, daily sowing seeds into situations and people. In the strength of the Lord, we are using the seed that He has already planted in us, trusting Him to multiply it wherever we would drop it around us in the lives of people, in systems and institutions, and in all corners of darkness that have need of His name. The Gospel that is slowly converting us will inherently spill over to touch more lives as is grows. The strength of what is in us by grace is bound only by our own resistance to death and dependency.

"Then he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts. Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain. And he shall bring forward the top stone amid shouts of ‘Grace, grace to it!’” Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, “The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also complete it. Then you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you. For whoever has despised the day of small things shall rejoice, and shall see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel" Zechariah 4:6-10