Parables are stories intended to make us think, to open us up to new ways of looking at the world. In our gospel lesson this week, Jesus tells two parables dealing with the natural cycle of life. The evangelist, putting the two back to back, perhaps is saying: “Pay attention; this is important.” If so, what might they say to us today? Think about it.

We know about the cycle of life, what it entails: birth, growth, maturation, deterioration, death. We see it in our lives and the lives of those around us, sometimes cut too short for our comfort. We notice it in our gardens as we plant the seeds and wait for the sprouts to appear and grow and produce what we hope to harvest or let go to seed. If we step back and reflect on natural disasters, we find the same cycle. For example, with the snow melts of spring coupled with the spring rains, rivers begin to fill up, then overflow their banks, come to crest along the way, and recede as they flow to their mouths and end. An idea may be looked at in the same way. It appears to us; we begin to think about it and what we may do with it. It begins to grow and develop into a path or a call. It consumes our energy as we pursue it and bring it to fruition; then at some point, we see it is over for us, and we move on.

For me it seems to speak first of the Creator’s way of creating anything and everything throughout the cosmos. Years ago I had a poster proclaiming: “What appears to be the end maybe just the beginning!” and my eyes are opened to see the resurrection of Christ Jesus telling us life on this earth is not all there is—there is new life after death however it may appear to end on this plane.