Good or evil?

What do you see when you look at the image below?

This week's reading is another parable that Jesus told.  This time about the seeds sewn to harvest (good) and those sewn that were weeds to hurt the harvest (evil).  In the picture above, both Good and Evil are there.  Can you see them both?

 

One way to see this parable is to recognize that there is good and evil everywhere, so how do we confront the evil?  Do we dig up the field and start again with just the good seed (and hope that the evil seed will not be sewn this time)?  Do we wait until the evil seed has taken root and then destroy it? Or do we wait, as in the story, and only harvest the good seed's growth?  The long wait ensures that the good seed is not destroyed along with the bad seed.  God's kingdom is not a "quick fix".  God's patience with his children ensures every opportunity for our growth.

 

As His children, though, we are not purely "good seed".  We do have bad in us.  How do we ensure that the good triumphs over the bad?  I like the picture above having both "good" and "evil" in it, like us.  But which do you see first?  And when you are looking at others, which do you see first?  Do you see the good in others or are you waiting for them to prove to you they're good and trustworthy?

 

It's easy to have a chip on your shoulder, to distrust others, and to look at others with judgement.  That's where we need to do the work to have a balanced view.  And this is also where prejudice and bias come in.  Can we say that we offer each person we encounter the opportunity for good?  To see them as they are, like us good and bad, and not as we perceive based on our own issues?

 

Thankfully, Jesus' parable tells us that God has the long view on things.  He knows we need it.  He is patient with us and gives us the time to do the work.  There is evil in the world.  But we don't need to create it by the way we look at others.  See the good.