Mustard Seed

I just had a revelation, an honest to goodness, put 2 and 2 together and BAM-O kind of revelation!!! I know most of my scholarly readers will be like "duh" but hey some of us it takes a little longer to put things together. Any way here it goes.

I was reading Luke 13:18-19 which is titled in my bible "Illustration of the Mustard Seed". When I first saw the title I assumed it was the usual verse about have faith as big as a mustard seed and you can move mountains, yada yada yada, well guess what it doesn't here is what it says:
"Then Jesus said, "What is the Kingdom of God like? How can I illustrate it? It is like a tiny mustard seed planted in a garden; it grows and becomes a tree, and the birds come and find shelter among its branches."

Well no wonder in Luke 17:6 he says: "Even if you had faith as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, (mountain in Matt. 17:20) move and it will obey you."

Wait for it, wait for it.....

If you have faith as small as a mustard seed and trust me they are pretty tiny, than you can move mountains because it is THE Kingdom of God. And just like the branches of a mustard tree are a calming place of rest for birds after a long or even a short flight so are the arms of the Father when you use your faith in him, because if you use just that small amount of faith you have the WHOLE Kingdom at your disposal.

Now if only I can remember that the next time I need to put my faith in practice.

The End

Well I finished reading Mary, A Flesh-and-Blood Biography of The Virgin Mother by Lesley Hazleton. Not sure if it was just my mind set while finishing it or what but really I started not liking the book any more.

Part 3 was about the women who Mary might have surrounded herself with after Jesus died until her final days. The first few chapters while being fiction of course helped maybe put a little light on how Jesus was prepared for burial and ultimately placed in the tomb, but I think Ms. Hazleton maybe even started doubting a lot of what the Bible says, because her tone or maybe it was me, but her tone basically starting denying that the male disciples were even around after the Crucifixion.

Instead of living out her final days with John, like Jesus tells her too from the cross (John 19:25-27), Ms. Hazleton makes it sound like that Mary just basically retired into a nearby village with all of the other women who were ever mentioned during Jesus' time on the earth, like Lazarus's' sisters: Mary and Martha, and Mary Magdalene. Actually I felt that Ms. Hazleton was kind of contradicting herself, one moment she was painting a picture of Mary be all knowing and maybe even running around being like one of the disciples and then she is talking about how Mary probably is just sitting around doing nothing all day maybe even tending to sheep again.

All in all I wished Ms. Hazleton would have stuck with more of the fictional writing instead of trying to compare Mary's life and everything that was going on around her to other cultures like Greek Mythology. But the one thing that the book has done, it has now moved Mary up on the list of people's feet I want to sit at when I get to Heaven and listen to her story because I do feel like she did get left out of one of the most important books of our time, whether due to whoever putting the final draft together of the Bible we currently read or maybe no one thought to record her actions like they did of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John but either way, I have a lot of questions to ask and I feel like she has lots of answers to give.