Seeds Everywhere — Mark 4

And so it was seeds everywhere
in Jesus sweet, dangerous
experiment of telling parables
and trusting people to hear
with their minds and hearts
more than their ears.

A story also in the other gospels
laid out the predictable relationship
between soil and abundance
and could be a wisdom tale
of any tradition,
and there is the remarkable
but familiar proposition
that tiny things
carry the greatest influence
when all that’s grand, loud and big
has been forgotten.

But then a third parable,
told only by Mark is called
the parable of the seed growing secretly.
Jesus claims that — No
we really don’t know how or why
some faith grows –
sometimes it can spring up
when soil and weather are all wrong.

That’s the parable I believe,
because people I know with deepest faith –
got planted in a hard place,
have to fight for every drop of rain
and forkful of manure,
hoe their own weeds, duck crows,
get trampled and thorned
every time.
and still spread their branches
to welcome the world.

Thanks for this photo to Randy K. Hammer and his remarkable blog “The Reflective Naturalist” reflectivenaturalist@wordpress.com