Fr. Frank Majka, SJ – The Bridge

Surprising Growth

Sometimes growth happens quickly and dramatically, but most of the time it’s more slow and subtle. The Kingdom of God is a lot like that, according to Jesus. He told about a man who planted a crop, then went to bed and woke up day after day without noticing that much was happening until, one day, he looked out to see a field of ripe grain.

Summer’s like that, too. Long hot days stretch out during July and early August, and not much seems to be happening. But then there’s a change in the evening air, leaves on trees start looking a dry and brittle, long sleeve shirts replace tank tops, and we notice that fall is coming on.

It’s also the same in our lives. We have long stretches when we don’t feel that much is happening to us or the people around us. Then one day we notice we’ve gotten older, and yesterday’s boys and girls have turned into men and women.

If that’s the way things work most of the time, it might be good to step back and try to see what’s been growing while we haven’t been looking. We might be surprised at what we find.