Before this week, I’ve always interpreted this parable as referring to the good people and bad people. Somehow, looking at it now, I’m not so sure it’s about people at all. Or it doesn’t have to be, anyway.
This week has been one of those where I would like have crossed up the wheat and the weeds in my life. In the moment of being the object of someone’s fury, I would have pulled that sucker out as a weed for sure. Bad. Bad. Bad. But, at the same time I learned some very positive things about myself.
Or, someone close to me who had to confess to a mess he’d made and finally get brave enough to say “I need your help.” A young man trying to grow up and having to swallow his pride. How do you pull out the weeds without also dislodging the wheat?
And so, I’ll accept that the sun shines and the rain falls on both wheat and weeds. Until they mature, you really can’t tell enough to sort them correctly. Once things mature, the whole picture becomes more clear. What seemed to be a bitter weed has produced the most amazing kernel of wheat.