Reflection
Jesus in the Gospels loves to use simple, tiny and insignificant objects to project His message of the kingdom. Today He uses the example of the mustard seed and the leaven in describing the might of the kingdom. The mustard seed and leaven would have hardly received any attention in the normal sense. Jesus uses them to reveal an extraordinary truth about the kingdom of God.
The mustard seed is tiny and if you hold it in your hand, it seems almost insignificant. Yet Jesus says that when it grows, it becomes large enough for birds to find shelter in its branches.
The kingdom of God has its humble beginnings, but it develops into a powerful force. The kingdom of God initiates in an unnoticed manner, but it enlarges into an influential entity. Jesus then speaks of yeast. Once mixed into the dough, it disappears and transforms everything from within.
Both these parables tell us that small beginnings are the promise of something wonderful to come, just as the mustard seed becomes a tree where the birds of the air build their nests and the tiny leaven has a huge impact on three measures of flour.
Humble beginnings can have an extraordinary outcome when God is at work. Little is much when God is in it.
Today we are called to keep doing the little bit of good we are able to do. It may not seem so much in our own eyes or in the eyes of others, yet God can work powerfully through whatever little good we do, in ways that well surprise us. God can work powerfully through our smallest efforts if they are done out of love for Him. Our calling is to plant some good seed and to trust that God will do the rest. Sometimes our efforts and attempts to spread God’s kingdom may be just minor, like the mustard seed and the leaven, but let us always realize and trust that little is much when God is in it.
