Day 10 – How can you make a difference?
Mark 4:21-33
He said to them, “Do you bring in a lamp to put it under a bowl or a bed? Instead, don’t you put it on its stand? For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open. If anyone has ears to hear, let them hear.”
“Consider carefully what you hear,” he continued. “With the measure you use, it will be measured to you—and even more. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.”
He also said, “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.”
Again he said, “What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest of all seeds on earth. Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds can perch in its shade.”
With many similar parables Jesus spoke the word to them, as much as they could understand. He did not say anything to them without using a parable. But when he was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything.
Carol Macdonald writes:
I expect all of us have, at one time or another, felt too small and insignificant to make much difference in the world. These three short parables from Jesus encourage us that, with God’s help, we can. It’s a thought that has been echoed by other people much more eloquent than me:
“Not all of us can do great things, but we can do small things with great love” Mother Theresa
“Do a little bit of good where you are, it’s those little bits of good put together that will overwhelm the world” Desmond Tutu
“Father, I thank you that in your kingdom, the apparently small and insignificant are important. I pray that you will show me where I can shine your light today, and perhaps sow a seed of love and faith in somebody else’s life”