Hebrews 10:32-39 / Mark 4:26-34
Life is always changing, and yet the changes in life always fill us with a certain anxiety.
Because when there are changes, the future becomes uncertain and unpredictable.
It is not that we want to predict the future, but a certain stability is shaken.
Whatever the changes might be, one thing is certain, and that is there will be growth.
The gospel parables of today talk about growth - the seed sprouting and growing, the mustard seed growing into a big shrub.
How these changes occur, we are not that certain, yet in the end, the results are obvious - there is growth.
The 1st reading also talks about changes. But those changes were rather distressful and even painful.
People who embraced the faith and became Christians were exposed to insults and violence and stripped of belongings.
But just as the seed was sprouting and growing and growing into a beautiful tree, then we must also believe that situations can change and change for the better along with time.
As the 1st reading puts it, "Only a little while now, a very little while, the one that is coming will have come; he will not delay. The righteous man will live by faith."
Let us face the changes in life with faith, and let us persevere in our faith and await the blessings of the Lord.