We have -
Moved To:
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RULES OF THE AIR

~ Every takeoff is optional. Every landing is mandatory.

~ If you push the stick forward, the houses get bigger. If you pull the
stick back, they get smaller. That is, unless you keep pulling the stick
all the way back, then they get bigger again.

~ It's always better to be down here wishing you were up there than up
there wishing you were down here.

~ When in doubt, hold on to your altitude. No one has ever collided with
the sky.

~ A 'good' landing is one from which you can walk away. A 'great' landing
is one after which they can use the plane again.

~ Never let an aircraft take you somewhere your brain didn't get to five
minutes earlier.

~ Stay out of clouds. The silver lining everyone keeps talking about
might be another airplane going in the opposite direction. Reliable sources
also report that mountains have been known to hide out in clouds.

~ There are three simple rules for making a smooth landing. Unfortunately
no one knows what they are.
 

Dear Howdy,
I suffer from two phobias: 1) Phobia-Phobia, the fear that
you're unable to get scared, and 2) Xylophataquieopiaphobia,
the fear of not pronouncing words correctly.
Brad S.
 

Permission is hereby granted for you to change all
humor used in The"E-Mail Newspaper", 'Thought &
Humor' and its subsidiaries related to the institution
of lower learning hereby known as UNC to another
of your choice from the list below:

1) Any French or German University
2) Harvard or U.C.-Berkeley
3) Any accredited high school or middle school
4) Any Loggerheads & Pundits
5) Any and all persnickety individuals or nincompoop
6) Any Chapel Hill, NC Citizen unless same sends an offspring
to Duke, NCSU, Luther College, Villanova, M.S.U. or Florida State.
 

Whom have I in heaven but You? And earth has nothing I desire
besides You. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the
strength of my heart and my portion forever. --Psalm 73
 

Dear Howdy, I would not open all your email until a friend
said it was OK. He sure was riight. Thanks for humor and
messages. Having a husband with Alzheimer's disease, I
need all the daily humor and inspirational messages
from the Lord that I can get. God bless you, M.G.D.
 

Tiny Beginnings
Alison Thomas

When I was a little girl, my father would affectionately call me "kaduku"
which means "mustard seed." Since most of my friends were called the more
common food-inspired nicknames of honey and sugar, I never understood why I
was compared to such a strange item. Years later, I described my
bewilderment to a friend as we were preparing a curry dish-mustard seeds
in hand. She chuckled and knew immediately why the name was appropriate.
She said, "Look at these tiny seeds, so quiet and inconspicuous. Yet when
we throw them into the oil, they will show us how loud and explosive they
can really be."

I could not help but smile recently with that memory in mind while reading
the parable of the mustard seed, another comparison that bursts of
paradoxical imagery. Jesus says, "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard
seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest
of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants
and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its
branches" (Matthew 13:31).

The significance of this parable is illuminated when connecting it to Old
Testament passages that describe little birds nesting in the branches of
mighty trees. In a revelation to Ezekiel, the Lord described Assyria as
"a cedar in Lebanon with beautiful branches and forest shade, and very
high; and its top was among the clouds. all the birds of the heavens
nested in its boughs, and under its branches all the beasts of the field
gave birth, and all great nations lived under its shade" (Ezekiel 31:6).
In Nebuchadnezzar's dream he too beheld "a tree in the midst of the earth,
and its height was great. The tree grew large and became strong, and its
height reached to the sky, and it was visible to the end of the whole
earth. Its foliage was beautiful and its fruit abundant, and in it was
food for all. The beasts of the field found shade under it, and the birds
of the sky dwelt in its branches, and all living creatures fed themselves
from it" (Daniel 4:10-12).

Since Jesus and his disciples were familiar with those mighty images, the
deliberate irony in the parable of the mustard seed was clear. The
kingdom of heaven would grow from tiny beginnings to a great tree that
would ultimately provide shelter, protection, and benefit to the entire
world. As Craig Keener notes, "The parable is intended to accent both the
qualities of growth and contrast. Like the mustard seed, the kingdom's
humble beginnings and unpretentious character offer no visible indication
of its future growth and glory, but just as there is continuity between
the tiny mustard seed and the resulting 'tree,' so there is continuity
from the seemingly inconsequential beginnings in Jesus' ministry and the
future glory of God's consummating reign. Thus even though the beginnings
of God's kingdom as manifested in Jesus may appear unimpressive, it is
casually dismissed at one's own peril."

How marvelously the parable of the mustard seed highlights the past,
present, and future magnificence of the kingdom in which God reigns.
Though the presence of the King among us may at times feel threatened and
slight, his is a kingdom with an explosive promise: it is not the one who
plants or waters; it is God who makes things grow. Even now He is working
to that end of future glory, calling us to see the great tree in the
seedling, growing all things in his time-even those things with the
tiniest of beginnings.



(1) Craig Keener as quoted in The College Press NIV Commentary:
Matthew (Joplin: College Press, 1997), Matthew 13:31.



Alison Thomas is an itinerant speaker for youth at Ravi Zacharias
International Ministries in Atlanta, Georgia.

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