The kingdom of heaven grows slowly, but it only moves in one direction. Jesus uses imagery of the mustard seed and tree to paint an image, pushing out the extremes of smallness and bigness. The birds that find shelter in the Kingdom are all sorts, even those considered undesirable. These parables are about patience - God works extraordinarily slow, and we have to trust God even as we do our part. We may never get a fully satisfying answer to the question, “why doesn’t God do something?!” beyond parables like the mustard seed. What we can do is take confidence that God heals the world through long-suffering love, which is not coercive nor controlling.
