Seeds that we plant will bear fruit in the Lord s time by his work. Our task is to plant the seeds, and to plant them well. We cannot use God s power to accomplish his work as an excuse for lazy ministry or shoddy work either. The use of parables in itself is a lot like planting seeds. Instead, a parable is a story that draws the learner into it, and invites exploration of its meaning.
Parables bear repeated telling and hearing, and each time new insight can be discovered.
This poem is also a parable. The figure of a tree is strong and often used in the Hebrew Scriptures. Here, the old cedar is the old Israel, nearly destroyed by its enemies. But God himself will save a remnant a tiny twig and transplant it so that it might become a tree that will spread its branches over the whole earth. The little twig, however, is fragile and will grow only under the power and protection of God.