Simple Things: Faith

On my desk sits an old prescription bottle, label long discarded, cap instructions faded. In the bottle is mustard seeds, probably hundreds of them. Written in Sharpie on the bottle, in my dad's handwriting, is "Mustard, 2013, Broad Leaf". That bottle is special to me for several reasons. Chief among them is my dad's handwriting, of course, but also the promise that old bottle holds. Mustard seeds are terribly small, you see, so even a half-full bottle has the potential for quite a yield.

I am fascinated by the size of the seed relative to the size of the plant it produces. It's like a joke, or a magic trick. Certainly hard to get the noggin around it. Amazingly, that mustard seed holds in its tiny shell everything the plant will become. I confirmed this with my dad, the horticulturist, so as not to mislead. Indeed, all the genetic potential of the plant is contained in the seed.

It stands to reason, then, that any limitations on what the seed will become are external. Dad confirmed this for me too. He said environment and growing conditions determine the extent to which the seed will express its genetic potential.

“All the genetic potential of the plant is contained in the seed. ”

— Dr. Mike Cannon

Likewise, faith.

A seed of faith is a tiny, fledgling thing; dormant, and thirsty. It contains in its DNA, however, all the genetic potential of mature faith. Like the mustard seed, it is chock-full of promise. It can produce something radically, exponentially larger than itself. A bumper crop of faith. Like the mustard seed, any limitations on how faith will express its potential are external - its environment and growing conditions.

Jesus emphasized how profoundly small the seed of faith begins, and how profoundly large its potential yield, by comparing it with a mustard seed. "Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you." (Matthew 17:20 NIV)

The key, as I see it, is to plant the seed.

Mustard seeds. It's the simple things.