Let’s think about growth for one more day. Jesus was clear: the Kingdom involves growth:

How shall we explain the Kingdom of God: it grows like a mustard seed. It grows and forms large branches so that the birds of the air can nest under its shade. (Mark 4.30 – 32, LSB)

From a seed to nesting birds – that’s growth! Heather Holleman has experienced this literally:

I venture out to the garden to check on my one little growing plumcot, and I see a beautiful robin’s nest, freshly built, and ready to house those gorgeous blue eggs. I love how, after a storm, the robins build nests from the mud formed from rain.

Something struck my heart: I planted the tree from a grocery store seed I propagated. I staked, I pruned, I fertilized, I watered. Each year, it grew. I never imagined that one day, the very seed I cared for would not only grow into a tree, but it would also serve as something more. It would house bird nests. It would bring more joy than even those plums. It would serve a whole ecosystem. – Heather Holleman, A Nest in the Plum Tree, June 14, 2023

Her blog continues, reminding us that our growth is not just for us…

I think, when we allow God to plant a dream in our heart, it becomes even more. God is ever-blessing, ever-expanding our hope, and ever-growing our abundance in countless unimaginable ways. We think we’re doing a thing for one reason (plums), but it might just be to bless in another way entirely (birds). You’re growing something. It might be for someone else. – Heather Holleman

God has a lot to say about trees, reminding us that their growth is for others…

And on the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither, nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing. (Ezekiel 47.12, ESV)

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. (Revelation 22.1 – 2, ESV)