June 29, 2007
Part two:
Jack gazed at the seed lying in the palm of his hand. It was small, smooth, and its light green husk stood in stark contrast against the tanned and calloused flesh of his hand. It looked like a simple bean, but hidden inside was a key to hope and a doorway to adventure! He raced to the doorway of the small hut in which he and his mother lived.
The delight he felt as he shared the new life that was now theirs was quickly dimmed by the scowl that his mother’s eyes leveled at him. “Y–y–you WHAT?” she spluttered. “You stupid boy! How could you? Have you no feelings for tradition? Do you not care for family loyalties? Do you even care that our family has always had a cow?” She pointed an accusing finger at him. “Of course not,” she scoffed. “But if you want to live under my roof, you’ll run right after that charlatan and give him that bean back for our cow! Either you get our cow back and give up on this whole ‘seed’ thing, or… never come back! I won’t see you anymore!” Jack looked at her both saddened and astonished. He had thought she would receive this turn of events with as much hope as he was feeling, not with horror and certainly not by giving him such a drastic ultimatum.
“But I can’t do that, Mother,” he protested. “You are dying! Our whole land is dying! I know in my heart that this is best for all of us! How can I turn down the one thing that will give us hope?”
His mother looked at him with accusing eyes. “You don’t love me. You never did. If you did, you wouldn’t treat me so!”
The heaviness of sorrow began to fill his heart as tears began to fill his eyes. “Mother, how can you say that? You know that I love you for I’ve cared for you since Papa died.” But the woman would hear nothing more and shrieked at him until he finally ran from the house and out of the yard.
His feet led him off the path and up the slope of a hill. He crossed its top and descended until he was no longer in sight of the house. He found a large rock and sat heavily down beside of it, glad for a bit of shade but overcome with sadness still. His heart felt as though it would burst from rejection and he wondered if he had been foolish. Still, he had made up his mind to reach out for life and if it meant that he appeared foolish to others, even his own mother, he was willing to endure it.
He pulled the seed out again and wondered what to do with it. Plant it surely, but where? And how could it grow in a land so dry and desperate that no other things could grow or bear fruit? As he mused over these questions, he slowly drifted off to sleep. One final tear slid down, for a moment leaving a narrow glistening track on his cheek but quickly fading as the hot and dry air cruelly blew over him. The seed, still resting in his hand, quivered ever so slightly, and then rolled over on its own, off of his palm and into a crack in the lifeless ground.
When he awoke, his first thought was wondering where he was. Then he remembered the seed and looked at his hand for it. Not seeing it, he wildly looked around at the ground about him. Then he noticed the enormous tree trunk beside him. Wait! It wasn’t a tree trunk; it was some kind of giant vine, springing up from the earth and into the sky. He gazed up at it completely awestruck. He carefully touched it, feeling its trunk, and marveled for he could feel the life within it. He pulled his hand away and found that it was covered with some sort of dew from the vine. He put it to his mouth and found that it tasted like a sweet nectar, but was refreshing, cooling his parched lips. He cupped his hand against the vine and allowed the moisture to pool there. He quenched his thirst and felt as if he were being made new.
He looked up and saw that he could not see the top of the vine, that it appeared to go on up forever. As his eyes drifted downward again he then observed a parchment nailed with three spikes to the base of the vine. Realizing that there was writing on it, he read the notice, “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness, by His wounds you have been healed” (*1 Peter 2:24 NIV). As he read these words, another parchment floated down from somewhere above and landed by his feet. He picked it up and read, “Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth” (*Colossians 3:1-2 NAS).
Jack smiled. He took a deep breath and leaping up, seized the lowest branch of the vine, pulled himself upward onto it and began to climb the bean stalk. “Keep seeking the things above,” he repeated to himself. “Yes, that’s exactly what I will do.”
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When Jesus gave His great Sermon on the Mount (see Matthew chapters 5 – 7), He was inviting them also to receive the seed of His Word for their lives so that they too could be lifted up above the pointless drudgery that life without Him offers. As He did so, He lovingly spoke to the future for those who follow Him, sharing with them that choosing to walk with Him is often fraught with persons who do not understand and even will reject us because of our devotion to the Savior.
“Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:10 NIV). For those who desire to experience the kingdom of heaven even while they tread the soil of everyday life, there is only one True Vine (John 15:1). For anyone who wishes to be lifted up, becoming heirs of hope, as well as agents of healing for our weary world, he must come to Jesus, the True Vine, for in Him alone do we have the means by which we may ascend to the very throne of God.
(Thom Mollohan and his family have ministered in southern Ohio the past twelve years. He is the pastor of Pathway Community Church, which meets on Sunday mornings at 455 Third Avenue. He may be reached for comments or questions by email at pastorthom@pathwaygallipolis.com).
