I like to garden — but I don't like pulling weeds. I especially don't like pulling up weed trees that are growing in the middle of a flower bed or vegetable garden. Even more, I detest uprooting volunteer trees that shoot off roots of a nearby poplar! They are nearly impossible to eliminate.

Luke 17:6 – [Jesus] replied, "If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it will obey you." (NIV)

Why a mulberry tree? I can never recall seeing one, but some online research has turned up some interesting facts. The white mulberry can grow to be 80 feet tall and the black mulberry grows to a mere 40 feet — but a mulberry can bear fruit for 100 years!

Imagine what it would take to dig up the roots of an eighty-foot tree, or even a forty-foot tree, by hand! The roots of a mulberry tree penetrate into the depths of the earth as far as the tree is tall — 40 to 80 feet! Imagine trying to uproot one! What a physical impossibility!

So the mulberry tree must have represented something lasting, something permanent, something not easily uprooted — and nearly impossible to eliminate.

Jesus said that the tiniest things, like mustard seeds, grow huge trees.

Does the future seem impossible? Is the task too wearisome? Is there more month than money? Has a foreclosure notice just arrived? Is it overwhelming? Does carrying on seem too hard?

Luke 18:27 – Jesus replied, "What is impossible with men is possible with God." (NIV)

Prayer: Lord God, enable us to look to You for what is possible, especially when everything feels impossible. Grant us mustard-seed faith that achieves the impossible. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.

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About the author:

Cassandra Wessel <casswessel4319@gmail.com>
Tionesta, Pennsylvania, USA
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