Dear Friends,
Things aren’t feeling especially lively in my corner of the world. One of my cats died unexpectedly last week. The heat has been oppressive, ready to scorch the plants in our yard, but alternating with rain that pummels the earth. A distant friend is entering hospice. I keep meaning to set some seeds in cups on the windowsill, but then I forget. I’m too busy working to consider what might be growing in the midst of all this.
I am not feeling like the good, fertile ground.
This week’s Gospel reading is the Parable of the Sower, the only Parable I’ve shared with my Godly Play community so far. A few have heard it twice, and a group of adults have even heard it because I told it during a special Family Mass on an afternoon we had all been gardening together. And I’ve talked about it here before, in my Earth Day newsletter, alongside Noah’s Ark, Creation, Baptism… but those aren’t the stories I’m thinking about today.
Today, though the Gospel tells us about the Sower and the many places the seed lands - among the thorns and on the rocks - I’m thinking instead about the Parable of the Mustard Seed. In the midst a continuing pandemic and personal sadness and so much fatigue, that’s how much *substance* I can muster. But it’s worth remembering the wonder of the mustard seed.
The mustard seed begins as the smallest of all seeds, only to become the largest plant in the fields, providing a home for the birds of the air, who flock to it. And it is said that, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you can move mountains - even when you don’t feel like you can lift your own two feet. It’s a good story for when you’re feeling a bit hopeless, but it’s also perfect for the small people in our lives.
So often, children are told - both in words and in how they are treated - that there’s not much they can do, that they don’t have any power. And in a lot of ways, they don’t. When it comes to the stuff that really matters, though - particularly in the ways they treat others - that they have all the power in the world, which is its own kind of miracle.
Where does that leave us? Let’s go Advanced Godly Play-style and put some things side by side:
What happens when we have:
The Parable of the Sower
The Parable of the Mustard Seed
The Parable of the Good Samaritan
all together?
What parts of the stories might we put next to each other?
What might the Good Samaritan do if he met the Sower?
What kind of seeds might the Sower be planting?
What kinds of seeds are we planting?
So, if you’re feeling small this week - I certainly am - maybe it’s a mustard seed time in your life. You don’t have to be big or feel strong to do big things. Be a small seed. Look for the good ground. Be patient.
I am with you in the waiting,
A. Bird