Are You Walking in the Faith?

And this is another parable that He put before them: “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field.  As a seed, the mustard seed, is smaller than any other; but when it has grown it is bigger than any other garden plant; it becomes a tree, big enough for the birds to come and roost among its branches. Matthew 13:31-32 NEB

You’re probably wondering what in the world the parable of the mustard seed has to do with walking.  Well, because its Lent I’ve been thinking a lot about Jesus, and how He taught us about God’s Kingdom through the parables. “The Mustard Seed,” is my favorite parable and I was discussing it with a friend from bible study.

Often while reading a parable, I do some extra reading in an endeavor to better understand its meaning or perhaps discover a hidden meaning.   I’ve learned that people in different “walks” of life tell us different things about what the parables might mean. 

For example, regarding the parable of the mustard seed, bible scholars tell us that Jesus probably wasn’t talking about the yellow mustard seed, those little round yellow seeds we see floating in the brine of bread and butter pickles. It is the opinion of these scholars that Jesus was talking about the black mustard seed.

Botanists tell us that the black mustard seed’s botanical name is brassica nigra, and it is a member of the cruciferous vegetable family. You probably know these vegetables as cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, etc. They are called cruciferous because the flowers on these plants only have 4 petals each and are shaped like a cross. Cross-shaped is the definition of the word cruciferous.    

People in the medical field tell us that we have 4 cruciate (cross-shaped) ligaments in our knees. We are the most familiar with the term ACL (because we so often hear of it as being involved in football injuries). ACL means anterior cruciate ligament. The other cruciate ligaments in our knees are posterior, medial and collateral. (Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary) 

To me, all of this means that God has marked each of us with the emblem of Christianity. With the signs of the cross in our knees, he has claimed us as His own even before we are born.  Perhaps this also means that with each step we take we are “walking in the faith” towards Him.

Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, we praise and thank You for all the miracles You work in our lives. We confess that often we don’t even see them. Help us, we pray, to walk towards You with each step we take that we might be more like Jesus every day. We ask it in His name. Amen 

Judy Welch