Meditation: Christ likens the kingdom of God to a mustard tree. While Christ draws our attention to the smallness of the seed and the largeness of the tree, many of the details within this parable are also highly symbolic. Trees are like ladders to heaven. At the top we have a cloud of leaves, symbolizing God’s glory cloud. Christ tells us of how “the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches” (Matt 13:32). These birds symbolize the angels and saints, singing beautiful songs to God. Christ therefore calls us to “look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them” (Matt 6:26).
Psalm verse: The birds of the air have their habitation; they sing among the branches. In them the birds build their nests; the stork has her home in the fir trees. (Ps 104:12, 17)
Prayer: Thank you, O Lord, for the gift of birds.
Scripture: And God said, “Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the firmament of the heavens.” So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” And there was evening and there was morning, a fifth day. (Gen 1:20-23)
