The following is based on a note written in 1933 by Rufus Jones.

In Psalm 1 there is the phrase "He shall be like a tree planted by brooks of water." This is saying that a certain kind of man is like a certain kind of tree; they are alike in the point that they both grow. Did you ever stop to think how much is written about growth? Consider the lilies how they grow. They toil not, they spin not. They just let the forces of life operate. They never know how it happens; they simply find themselves beautiful.

We puff and wheeze; we struggle and discuss; we have endless committee meetings. But Jesus said that where two or three meet in his name, he is there in their midst and then they grow like the lily or the tree by the brook. It isn't effort; it isn't struggle that makes us grow; it is life. It is contact with the forces of life that does it. Growth is silent, gentle, unnoticed, but you can't have growth until you have the miracle of life--soil, sun, water, and air.

It is the same with spiritual growth. It begins with life from God, and it grows through light and truth and love, which have their source in the spirit. A good many people expect the Kingdom of Heaven to come by a sudden relief expedition from the sky, but Jesus said it would come like growth of a tiny seed. It is like a mustard seed or yeast. You start with a tiny germ of life, and the growth is sure to follow--first the blade, then the stalk, then the ear, and finally the full corn in the ear. It grows while the farmer sleeps; he knows not how. It is a mystery, but not a miracle. When it comes to the Kingdom, we people are the soil, we are God's farm. God will come like rain on the mown grass; he will come as dew.