Matthew 13:31-32
“31 He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. 32 It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”
Mark 12:33-34
“33 And to love him [your neighbor] with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” 34And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And after that no one dared to ask him any more questions.”

I’ve never seen a mustard tree, only seen pictures of them. They are pretty amazing. From the tiniest of seeds comes this large glorious tree that offers comfort and protection. It grows from nothing to something huge. The kingdom of heaven is like that? Amazing. There is hope.

Wisdom is like that too. We start with nothing, and if we learn from our days, we understand how things work. And what drives the wisdom the Christ was talking about? Love.

Love is like a mustard seed. Think of the protection. Think of the beauty. Think of the impact of one little seed.

Christ tells us we are not far from the kingdom of God when we love. His love though. His style, His challenges, His purity. We’re flawed, He’s not. Our love is flawed, His is not.

Imagine what will happen when we all plant the mustard seed of His love in our hearts and have Him tend to it. Transformational is the only way to describe it. The whole world transformed and loving. We’ll be close to the kingdom of God then. Imagine how we can leverage our wisdom in love to eliminate poverty, pain, hopelessness. It’s doable because we have the wisdom, resources and skills. Unfortunately, what we also have is people who ain’t loving like we’re taught by Christ, so we’re missing the love part. We’re missing the seed.

The kingdom of heaven is like mustard seed. Plant the seed in your heart and see what grows. See what you sort of a mustard tree you can become.