A Seed Parable

Grandpa carried this handful of hard “gnang” around for days trying to sell it to us.  Eventually he just left them on the floor.

A few weeks ago I received a box from my mother.  It contained the usual things: small cars for the kids, stickers for my students, and snacks for me.  Normal, forgettable things.  At the bottom, however was a file folder stuffed with various articles and clippings.  I flipped it open and found an inconspicuous photocopy on top.  It was an excerpt from Megan McKenna’s Parables: Arrows of God that had been reprinted in Sun magazine in September.

I hope it speaks to you as much as it did to me…

A Seed Parable

There was a woman who wanted peace in the world, peace in her heart and all sorts of good things, but she was very frustrated. The world seemed to be falling apart. She would read the papers and get depressed. One day she decided to go shopping; she went into a mall and picked a store at random. She walked in and was surprised to see Jesus behind the counter. She knew it was Jesus, because he looked just like the images she’d seen on holy cards and devotional pictures. She looked again and again at him, and finally she got up her nerve and asked: “Excuse me, are you Jesus?”

“I am.”

“Do you work here?”

“No,” Jesus said. “I own the store.”

“Oh, what do you sell in here?”

“Oh, just about anything!”

“Anything?”

“Yeah, anything you want. What do you want?”

She said: “I don’t know.”

“Well,” Jesus said. “Feel free, walk up and down the aisles, make a list, see what it is you want, then come back and we’ll see what we can do for you.”

She did just that, walked up and down the aisles. There was peace on earth, no more war, no hunger or poverty, peace in families, no more drugs, harmony, clean air, careful use of resources. She wrote furiously. By the time she got back to the counter, she had a long list. Jesus took the list, skimmed through it, looked up at her and smiled.

“No problem.” And then he bent down behind the counter and picked out all sorts of things, stood up and laid out some packets.

She asked: “What are these?”

Jesus replied: “Seed packets. This is a catalog store.”

She said: “You mean I don’t get the finished product?”

“No, this is a place of dreams. You come and see what it looks like and I give you the seeds. You plant the seeds. You go home and nurture them and help them to grow and someone else reaps the benefits.”

“Oh,” she said.

And she left the store without buying anything.

So my question for you, is what do you have enough hope to plant and courage to help grow?  If you look hard you’ll see the seeds have been in your pocket all along.