A chance encounter

Matthew 13:31-32 (ESV)

[31] He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. [32] It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”

With the arrival of my second child this week I’ve been reflecting on how my family came to faith is like the parable of the mustard seed, something small growing into something vast. A small beginning that my Dad described as “a chance encounter”.

My family in previous generations are, as far I know, not Christians. My parents grew up going to Sunday school and singing hymns in class but that was the extent of their faith.

Jump to their 40s (1995-96) when I was born, they bumped into a colleague of my fathers in a shop. This colleague is an elder at the church I would later grow up in. Asking for recommendations for a child minder he pointed them to the pastor’s wife. Going to this godly woman turned into a invitation for my mum to bring me to the mothers and toddlers group, this then turned into my mum going to church, which turned into her being saved, then me, then my dad.

This “chance meeting” planted a mustard seed in my family that God has turned into the mutli generational redemption of my family. I now look forward in prayerful hope to my two children, trusting that they will find salvation in Christ as well.

A “chance meeting” in a shop in the 1990’s has completely altered the trajectory of the Fulcher family for eternity. The work of expanding the Kingdom happens more in the mundane than in the spectacular.

We can be encouraged that our small actions done in faith are like mustard seeds. Small to begin with, but with God’s guiding hand they will grow roots that will stretch from generation to generation.