October 14: Matthew 13:31-32
 
Key Verse: Matthew 13:32
Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.’
 
Devotion:
Whenever I hear these verses, my mind goes back to our home in Zimbabwe where we had a pepper-corn tree in our yard next to the house. This was one of the tallest trees in the neighbourhood, yet it produced something so small and full of flavour: red pepper corns. They were bright red to start with, but after picking them the red coating would crumble away leaving black pepper corns which you could put directly into your pepper mills and use them.
 
This tree was at some stage, been a single seed smaller than a pea, but bigger than mustard seeds. This seed was planted and had grown for many years to be a huge tree standing far above the house roof. I loved climbing as high as I could to look out and see the whole neighbourhood from my vantage point. Unfortunately, the higher I climbed, the less steady the branches were, so I could never actually get to the top!
 
Now, after studying God's Word and living my life with Jesus, I can draw parallels with many aspects of Christ. We climb as high as we can, but we can never reach the top because we are too weighed down by this world – we long to be able to reach the top; the realm of God. The tree was not nice to climb because out of the bark would seek sticky sap as you tried to climb, but after climbing you would not worry about the 'worldly sap' but would focus on the amazing view.
 
As we live our lives with Christ, we don't have an easy ride but meet challenges all the way. What we find after living with Christ is a life worth living and 'out of this world!' What Jesus gives us along the way is something special which gives our world a new flavour which is sought after by many, yet given abundantly to us!
 
Points to Ponder:
Are you beaten back by the things in this world you don't like?
 
What if you could rise above those things and be closer to God?