Yesterday at CBC we started looking at Jesus' parables in our 'Kingdom of God' series. Three of the next four weeks will be spent exploring more parables. A parable is a story with a point - one of the questions for us is whether or not we can be bothered to try and work out what it is that Jesus is trying to say to us through this story.
Yesterday, as a family, we went to the 'Cluster Tea' at Barton, and our three girls came away with a partially eaten box of chocolates - due to the fact that they won a highly rigged quiz. The last few chocolates in the top layer were eaten during the remainder of the evening. The box was left in the kitchen over night.
This morning, as they eventually all surfaced, all three girls came into the kitchen, saw the box of chocolates, opened the box, closed it again, and went and sat down for breakfast. Not one of them asked for a chocolate.
They have yet to experience a multi-layered box of chocolates. On seeing the empty tray, it never occurred to them that there might be another complete layer underneath.
And so there is a box of chocolates, in plain sight, that is totally safe from the girls!
So the kingdom of God might not be like a box of Milk Tray, but the parables are a bit like a box of Milk Tray. They are stories that Jesus told - in plain sight. And for those who want to dig a bit deeper, those who think 'there is more here than meets the eye', there are great rewards.
