Ever notice how teams with animal mascots pick strong, fast, fierce animals? Lions, tigers, eagles, vipers; not earthworms, crickets, sloths, or tadpoles. Okay, there are the TCU Horned Frogs, but you get my point. National symbols work the same way. Ben Franklin argued that the turkey is a much nobler bird than the bald eagle, but nobody agreed.

Jesus says the kingdom is like . . . a huge oak tree? A maple? Nope—a mustard plant, small and common, not big and majestic. Mustard greens start from small seeds, and they grow like crazy; and if you don’t pull them and eat them (as most people did and still do), they grow into a sort of bush.

God’s kingdom—this place where God’s love is stronger than any other power, human or cosmic—doesn’t look powerful, doesn’t have tanks or armies. God’s kingdom is small and ordinary; it’s full of peace-lovers and people who feed the poor. But it has spread worldwide, and lots of us birds call it home.

By Richard Vinson from D365