Little Seeds and Big Trees...

One time he (Ryan) told someone, “People like Nelson Mandela are like big, old, oak trees and I’m like a little seed and if we get lots of water, love and sun, maybe we’ll grow up to be big, old, oak trees.” Susan Hreljac of her son, Ryan, founder of Ryan’s Well Foundation (http://www.ryanswell.ca)

And he was saying, “The kingdom of God is like a man who casts seed upon the soil;  and he goes to bed at night and gets up by day, and the seed sprouts and grows, how-he himself does not know (Mark 5:26-27 NASB).

These two quotations express the dichotomy of earthly and heavenly sources of the Kingdom of God and human development;  Both ring true within our hearts and minds though they may seem to be an “either/or”. 

Ryan Hreljac credits the role of earthly intervention:  He heard, in his first grade class at his Catholic school that children in Africa were dying from lack of safe drinking water and decided to do something about it--- now he has raised millions of dollars and built many wells and purchased well-drilling equipment in Africa to expand the work!  

Children, parents and teachers I interviewed for my research spoke eloquently, deeply and passionately that their compassion for others was, at least in part, sourced in the love and care from their own parents as did the research of the Oliners who studied rescuers of Jewish people in WWII (Oliner 1988).[i]

At the same time, some parents and the research of others also found moral exemplars referenced a sense of God’s nearness, His presence, direct experience with God as a conviction to act with compassion (Colby and Damon 1992; Farmer 1992;  Hardy, 1979).[ii] 

It is a challenge for us to hold these two dimensions in tension:  the work we do to build the Reign of God and the work of God through the Holy Spirit that occurs, often independently of our earthly efforts.  

Reflections with Children 

In what ways are family and teachers helping you understand who God is, what He is like and what it will be like when He alone reigns?  In what ways has God spoken into to your heart to teach you about who he is and what His ways are like? Have you sensed His voice inside of you?  Have you sensed Him close to you and guiding you?  Have you sense Him respond to your prayers?  How has His nearness to you made a difference?

Reflections as Adults, including as Parents

In what ways am I introducing the Kingdom of God to others?  In what ways do I see God working to introduce His ways to others?  In what ways am I embracing this tension of “both/and”-- both God’s work and my walking alongside Him as He works?  In what ways is it difficult in our culture not to want to take some of the credit?  How can I work with that? 

Reflections as Teachers/Children’s Pastors 

In what ways do I see God working in the lives of the children and families I serve?  In what ways am I building families up to see the ways God is working in the lives of their children?  In what ways am I succeeding at introducing the Reign of God to the children?  In what ways might I be taking credit for what God is doing?  In what ways am I walking with God as He works?   

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[i]  Oliner, Samuel, and Pearl Oliner. 1988. The Altruistic Personality: Rescuers of Jews in Nazi Europe. New York: Free Press.

[ii] Colby, Anne , and William Damon. 1992. Some Do Care: Contemporary Lives of Moral Commitment. New York: Free Press. Farmer, Lorelei, J. 1992. Religious experience in childhood: a study of adult perspectives on early spiritual awareness. Religious Education 87 (2):259-268.  Hardy, Alistair. 1979. The Spiritual Nature of Man: A Study of Contemporary Religious Experience. Oxford: Clarendon Press.