Fertility

The Kingdom of God is where we actually live our everyday lives, in our ordinary, everyday events. God is present and blesses us. The Kingdom of God shows itself in our little improvements of attitude and action, our good works, our desire and striving to serve God as best we can with what we have.

We don’t have to wait for some apocalyptic event announcing the coming of the Lord. Where there is charity, there is God. Where we care for each other, there is God. Where we lift up those who have fallen, there is God. When we do our best to be our best, there is God. When we take care of the earth and all we have been given, there is God.

The biblical lesson of the mustard bush is that it is God who plants seeds of love, of peace, of justice, of good works in the soil that is our life. When we trust God and let ourselves sink into the fertile soil that God is caring for, even our small actions can become magnified by the Lord, as we are invited to be part of the new world God wants to create–the Kingdom of God on earth.

Just as the seed grows by itself, so God’s Kingdom cannot be forced into existence, and certainly not by violence. God’s creative power is at work and will provide the harvest. In the end, it is pure grace, pure gift, and we give thanks.

Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you. (Matthew 17:20)