It’s a beautiful sunny day and I was pulling some weeds in our garden. Whenever I’m working in the dirt all sorts of spiritual parallels come to mind. Today’s was just too obvious. As I hoed the weeds between the rows of lettuce, green beans and spinach I couldn’t help but think of Jesus’ parable about the weeds and the wheat in Matthew 13:24-30.
God's kingdom is like a farmer who planted good seed in his field. That night, while his hired men were asleep, his enemy sowed thistles all through the wheat and slipped away before dawn. When the first green shoots appeared and the grain began to form, the thistles showed up, too.
The farmhands came to the farmer and said, 'Master, that was clean seed you planted, wasn't it?
Where did these thistles come from?'
He answered, 'Some enemy did this.'
The farmhands asked, 'Should we weed out the thistles?'
He said, 'No, if you weed the thistles, you'll pull up the wheat, too. Let them grow together until harvest time. Then I'll instruct the harvesters to pull up the thistles and tie them in bundles for the fire, then gather the wheat and put it in the barn.'
I pulled a lot of thistles out of our garden today. For a while, when the weeds and the plants are small, they look a lot alike. In the same way, people who are not truly serving Christ can be “planted” near us. We live, work and sometimes serve side by side. God allows this –for a while. The farmhands asked the farmer in the parable if they should pull the thistles. The farmer didn’t want His precious crop harmed so he let the weeds grow with it. God is so concerned for His own children that He sometimes lets the “impostors” be, for the time being, and doesn’t judge them immediately. When you observe injustice and wonder why God doesn’t deal with wrongdoers immediately, remember that God’s harvest is coming. The weeds are still small.
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