When I was a child, my grandmother planted a stick in the ground. At least, that’s how I perceived it.
The thought of that stick had completely left my mind until my grandfather backed over it a few years later. The stick was bigger, but it still looked like a stick to me. Yet my grandmother ran across the yard as though my grandad had desecrated some timeless treasure. She repaired the stick that was really a tree with duct tape, as any good southerner would.
Decades passed without another thought given to that broken-down stick. That is, until this past April. As I pulled into my grandmother’s driveway, I was welcomed by beautiful pink blooms, the type that won’t let you look away. Then I realized that scrawny, duct-taped stick had grown into something truly breathtaking.
Jesus’ point about the kingdom of heaven in Matthew 13 is like the stick that became a beautiful tree. He compares the kingdom with an unimpressive seed that eventually grows into an impressive one. He wants his disciples to understand that the kingdom begins humbly but will enjoy a triumphant end. But what’s the difference between the seed and the tree, the humble
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