Jesus, Weeds, Wheat or Flower?

I took the funeral of a scaffolder once.  They said he had a unique perspective on life, not surprising really since most of his working life he spent was above ground looking down.  Without taking quite such drastic actions it always pays to take a step back for a moment to see how things are going as it were.  Once can always get too involved with minor details at the expense of the greater picture.  I have finally made the trip to see the Celtic cross at Gwaenysgor viewpoint this week, I’ve been meaning to go for a while – but it is worth a visit.  It’s not quite Rio, however, the view is quite special.  Looking out over Prestatyn and Rhyl a few things come into sharper focus – firstly most obvious to me is that the sale of solar panels has not gone down particularly well at all in Prestatyn.  Thousands of clear roofs facing into the sun – such a waste of energy, especially on a sunny day!  They seem to have been taking off, but in reality only a few overall have taken them on.  Such a shame that this free, and never ending source of energy is being largely ignored.  Instead we argue over more and more complicated ways of extracting less and less fossil fuels.  I guess it is a perspective thing!  I would have at least expected Tesco to cover the roof with them – even if only from an economic perspective, but hey…  Fortunately for us there were no such problems for the biblical times, however Jesus often refers to the old fashioned gathering of solar power – growing things!  Both weeds and wheat gather solar energy and in the parable the workers are about to go through the field and remove the weeds.  Now everyone knows one persons weeds is another’s flower…  personally I like to give plants the benefit of the doubt for at least one season to find out what they might be useful for, even if only to brighten the day and increase the diversity.  Of course Jesus suggests the weeds and wheat should grow together as people in life.  Let the judgement take place at the end of their time on earth.  By the time of harvest who is to say that some of those weeds may have become wheat.  Jesus makes us change our perspective from one focussed into individual issues to one which takes in the whole of the kingdom of God.  Running up mountains aside, it is worth standing away or above and looking out over the whole picture to  help us not to miss some of the joys of life which might otherwise have been mistaken as weeds.