Join in the Miracle
Mark 4:26-29: 26 He also said, “The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, 27 and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. 28 The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. 29 But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come.”
When is a miracle invisible? It’s invisible when it becomes commonplace. Today’s parable talks about the miracle of a growing seed. A farmer plants a hard, dead seed in the ground and a miracle takes place. The seed grows and produces grain, and a few months later the farmer returns to harvest the crop.
Maybe that doesn’t seem like much of a miracle, but that’s because we’re surrounded by countless miracles like these every day. Whether it’s the trees that grow from the seeds and cones that fall from them, or the blackberries that volunteer their delicious sweetness even when they’re growing in the places we wish they’d stay away from. Or the herbs and vegetables that volunteer themselves from the remains of last year’s garden. They are all signs of God’s miraculous gift of life and growth.
God is waiting to give us miracles. That’s what today’s parable is talking about. The power of the planted seed lies in its potential for the miraculous. It has the power to become a plant whether we understand how it happens or not, and it will achieve its potential with or without our efforts. And just like that planted seed is infused with the miraculous power of life, the seed of the church is infused with the miraculous power of God. It’s infused with the power of His holy Word, and that power and that potential for growth can’t be denied whether we choose to stand in its way or help it to flourish.
It’s a lot like my lawn. The greenest part, the part that grows the best, is where the dandelions are. Now I don’t encourage the dandelions. I even try to pull them out by the roots and douse them with weed killer. But no matter what I do, no matter how hard I try to wipe them out, they always come back.
That’s the power of the dandelion. And that’s also the power of God’s church. It’s a miracle, even though that miraculous power is often invisible and ignored. Even when it’s persecuted and others try to destroy it, it’s a power that won’t be denied.
So, feel God’s power and join in the miracle!
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