John and Lisa's Blue Skies Blog – Soaring with God

The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.
The owner’s servants came to him and said, “Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?”
“An enemy did this,” he replied.
The servants asked him, “Do you want us to go and pull them up?”
“No,” he answered, “because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.”
(Matthew 13:24-30)

Recently, I’ve been working on my spiritual autobiography. There are a lot of interesting twists and turns to my story. I felt pretty good setting all of this stuff on paper but when I went back and read the whole thing, I felt depressed. I thought, “Gee, I sound like some kind of nut case.  I’ve made so many stupid mistakes.” I put the autobiography away for several days, then went back and read it again. I had the same reaction.

When I shared what I’d written with a friend and told her how it made me feel, she quoted the parable of the wheat and the weeds to me.

Now, usually in sermons, this parable is interpreted as referring to good and evil people co-existing in this world until the end of time when the Lord will come again and separate the good (the wheat) from the evil (the weeds) and send each of them to their respective reward or punishment. My friend helped me see that the good and the evil exist side by side within each one of us – and God is okay with that! He clearly sees what’s going on and He allows it because in the end, everything will turn out the way He intends. The enemy tries to ruin us, but God knows what the enemy is up to.

I now picture God sitting back smirking at the works of the evil one playing games with me (and everyone else). God thinks of the enemy and his works: “Oh yeah? You imagine yourself pretty crafty, huh? Sure, you’re pretty sneaky playing around in the dark, setting traps for my loved ones, but I know all about it.  Have your fun while you can.  You might win a few small battles, but the ultimate victory is mine.”

The good and the evil exist together in each one of us.  In truth, we can’t uproot the evil without damaging the good.  God knows.  Everything is fine.