There was once an ancient city that was the pride of the land. Since it had never been conquered the country’s rulers settled in this city and it became wealthy. Its security enabled the arts and sciences to flourish and it became the home of universities, libraries, and hospitals. Great thinkers, poets, musicians, artists, philosophers settled there and brought a prosperous golden age for that land and the lands around it. It appeared social advancement was about to take a leap forward.
This was all possible because of the huge grey stone wall. The massive wall wrapped around the city like a father's arms. No invader was ever able to knock it down, scale it, or undermine the mighty wall. Armies, would be conquered, and hordes would come; they would flail themselves against the great grey wall like a living sea, hammering it with battering rams and engines of warfare until exhausted they would melt away like the misty dew. High, broad, and strong the wall was a wonder of ancient times.
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| The Wall: The Parable of the Seed |
Unnoticed, a seed of a tree found its way into a little crack in that great grey wall of stone; a crack that was so small it could not be seen from ten feet away. The seed found enough soil in that crack and moisture to sprout. It was a harsh place for a seed to grow but it struggled on and lived. That seed sent its thread-thin roots into the rock and mortar seeking other cracks from which to draw nourishment. Some roots secrete an acid that dissolves rock and so its roots went deep.
Over the years the roots of this tiny seed worked their way through the wall, finding tiny cracks and weakening areas of the stone.
The tree went unnoticed because in the harsh sun of the day and cold wind of night the tree trunk and leaves were never bigger than a potted plant. Those who did notice it gave it no thought since it was only a little stubble of a shrub on the surface of the wall. They made jokes about it. Time and again someone would reach up and take a hold of its tough woody branch and break it off but they never saw the roots. Undaunted, the roots lived, struggled on, and the scrawny branch would grow back.
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| General Alos-Chang-Sria |
One day the army from the east came. It was the great hoard of Alos-Chang-Sria, Conqueror of Kings. The people in the city were complacent, confident that they have never fallen to an enemy they felt safe behind the mighty granite walls. General Alos-Chang-Sria knew he faced a challenge. His men had fought many hard battles and needed rest, but he needed to feed and pay his army, and sacking a city was a quick meal. If he didn't give victory his army would desert, or even turn on him >One of his captains brought a spyglass and they took turns studying the distant wall. Then he saw it, a little green smudge on the wall- the tree. At a distance, it was only a little green smear but being an experienced soldier he knew what it meant. He ordered catapults to target that one mark of green, the little shrub of a tree.
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| They Saw The Green Smudge In The Wall. |
The machines of war catapulted one and three-ton stones, which flew in a carefully planned arch through the sunny blue dawn and with precision pounded the wall. Even at a distance the general and his captains knew by the sound that they found their mark; they found the weak spot.
Before the sun was high the wall was holed, a hole big enough for men on horses to ride through, and the barbarian horde surged through the hole.
The city had forgotten warfare so the city was taken and its people slaughtered; the arts lost, and libraries burned, the science destroyed for the future generations to rediscover. The city was lost from memory and its name is forgotten, and a dark age of ignorance and despair settled across the land. All lost because a little seed went unchecked in the wall.
Let’s beware of the little seeds in our lives, little things that are slowly taking root and working it’s way through to weaken and destroy. Some we don’t recognize, others we see and know its serious but we joke about it or think it is no big deal. Remember the little seed lest you too fall.
Illustration to not let sin take root. Romans 6:23, James 1:14-15,
(C) Adron Dozat 11/26/10
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