We like our privacy here in the USA.  I like my privacy.  We want to do what we want to do without notice (except when we want it) and without restriction.  And we don’t like to change unless it is our idea.

When Jesus says, “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed…” I’m comfortable with it (read the passage here).  I like to be a mustard seed – small, insignificant, hardly noticeable.  They’re tiny, easily lost.  You can’t buy just one mustard seed – they’re too insignificant.  And if you drop one, you have a hard time finding it.

I want to stay a mustard seed, too.  Change is difficult, and I have enough difficulty as it is trying to keep things the same for even a short period of time.  Time passes, things need attention, like grass in the yard or my children, and I kinda just want to be left to enjoy sitting for a few moments.  So, more change isn’t really my top priority.  Sadly, though, change just seems to accelerate at an alarming rate lately.

Jesus doesn’t stop there, however.  Someone sows the mustard seed.  Good.  Still small, even more insignificant and hard to find.  Except Jesus keeps going.  Oh, oh…  The seed grows.  It doesn’t just become a pretty garden herb, something tidy and sweet.  It gets bigger!  And it keeps growing until (O Lord, NO!) it gathers other needy creatures into its fold.

Wait!  Stop!  I have enough needs in the various parts of my life.  I don’t need any nasty birds showing up unexpectedly!  And I’m just too visible if people I don’t even know recognize me!  Can’t you do some pruning, Lord?  Isn’t that what you do to vines?  Why not mustard plants?

Things are out of control, here! 

Heh.  All that from a mustard seed.  The kingdom of heaven is a strange thing.

But so is the Sower.  Oh, he prunes, but only to make us even more fruitful than we were before – more change called growth!  He expects a return of epic proportions , based on his comments shared earlier in the same chapter as the mustard seed passage (see Matthew 13:18-23).  I’m not sure I can deal with the demands.

I mostly struggle with the visibility.  Jesus simply wants us to bear fruit and he promises in many ways to be the power behind the production (for example, see John 15:1-7, especially v. 7).  I’m all too often about the numbers and how visible I will be (or not) when the final tally comes.  I want to know where I stand!  Jesus doesn’t seem to look at it that way.  It’s all about how I connect with him and respond to his sowing process.

If I really want to have a “mustard seed mentality,” I’ve got to expect growth and change, sometimes of amazing magnitude.  And the results will be love and joy (see John 15:9-11)!  Now, that’s almost too much to expect from a mustard seed…

But not from Jesus.  And that’s really the bottom line.  I’m beginning to see that mustard seed mentality is not about the mustard seed at all (whew!), but about the Sower.

Okay, Lord, let’s get growing!