In Tune With Nature

In this morning's Gospel, Matt 13:31-35, Jesus uses two examples that everyone in his time would recognize:  the mustard seed and yeast. So tiny is the mustard seed that it became synonymous with anything small, such as Kleenex has become the ordinary word for facial tissue, be it Puff or Scott.
Before corner grocery stores or supermarkets, every family used yeast to make their daily bread. Jesus did not write high tech theology books, nor ramble in the abstract.  He drew lessons from the ordinary, the everyday, so that all could relate to them.  This is an enviable ability, and not beyond us, if we take our time to notice our surroundings and let them instruct us.
A week ago on a six and a half hour bus ride with legs cramped and a large, heavy briefcase on my lap, I had a lot of time to drink in the beauty of the Rwandan country side where people were diligently working in their neat plots in the valleys and even on the hillsides.   Women would swing their large hoes in a large arc over their heads and let the weight of the metal help it dig deeply into the soil.  People walked or rode bicycles on the side of the road in a safety zone provided for them.  A haze enveloped the hills giving them a slightly bluish tinge. Even in this dry season, green dominated, and people began their planting in anticipation of the rainy season coming up in September.  What a beautiful rhythm of man and nature, much like what Jesus observed in his time.  Can we in our urban or sub-urban settings see things with "country eyes" and find our rhythm with the little bits or nature still available to us, or with the wonders of technology that human intelligence has drawn forth from the basic elements God has given us in creation?  Can we make the link between creation and the Creator?  Something worthy to work on.
Bro. Rene