Matthew Costner

Have you ever seen a mustard seed? I saw my first one several years ago, when an old mentor of mine gave me one in a small bottle (he had brought tons of them back from a Holy Land trip he had taken). I couldn’t believe my eyes as to how small it was. It was so small that I was afraid that if I opened the container and it fell out, I would lose it for forever.

I was so proud of that seed. I literally showed it to everyone that came over to my house. Seeing that I played with that little bottle a lot, my mischievous little puppy named Toby got interested in it too. Before I could scream, “NO,” Toby had gnawed the end of my bottle off and had swallowed the seed.

I remember hating my dog for a few seconds, until I realized that he had taught me a valuable lesson. The lesson being this: we can have something so tiny in us that we not know it exist. Toby had no clue that he had eaten the seed because it was so small (about the tip of a small pen), but despite his disappointment with his find, the fact still remained that my mustard seed was in his tummy. I think I would have felt better if I thought he enjoyed the seed, but I’m extremely confident he didn’t feel any different then, than when he took his first big lick inside the plastic container.

It’s interesting to me that the Kingdom of God is said to be started by a seed so small that we, and Toby, wouldn’t be able to tell it’s in us. The very seed (or one like it!) that the eternal reign of God is birthed from was in Toby and he had no clue! He felt no different!

You know, many of us didn’t, and don’t, feel any different when we accepted Christ into our lives. Maybe we felt a few goose bumps and kept a spiritual high for a few months, but the “different” feeling passed. Goose bumps go away and spiritual highs usually only last a little longer. Then we find ourselves asking the question “now what”? Maybe even, “was that experience real”? Or better yet, “is Jesus really in me now”!?

Paul tells us in Colossians 1:27 that as Christians we have “Christ in you (us), the hope of glory.” In other words, when we become Christians, the eternal rule of God in us begins, yet it’s the size of a mustard seed! So as Christians, we have this mustard seed in us, yet we don’t often know it exists. Maybe we do, but we have forgotten because we don’t feel any different.

Once we have had that spiritual high and goose bump experience it is so difficult to think that God is ruling and present in our lives without it. We want to think God is with us so desperately that we try to find ourselves in religious services that will produce the kind of goose bumps and spiritual highs we equate with God. The truth is that God is always present, whether we are on a spiritual high or are covered up with goose bumps.

So what do we do when we find ourselves not feeling different or find that life is so hard that we need to hear the truth that God is ruling in our lives? We read and meditate on Scripture, we pray, we seek Christian community, and have faith that Christ is always there (read Hebrews 7:25). In other words, we water the seed.