Message summary: As Christ's representatives let us use our unique God-given gifts in blessing others and also in spreading the Gospel!

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"He [Christ] told them many things in parables" (Matthew 13:3).

This week I am taking my turn at driving Amish teachers to and from school each day. My alarm goes off at 5:00am and by 5:30 I head out for a 34 mile drive through the Lancaster County countryside. It was very cold this morning (about 15 degrees) but the young teachers were dressed for the cold weather and ready to take on their daily duty of getting the propane gas turned on so the young scholars are warmly welcomed on this first day of the school week. The route includes driving through a covered bridge, which Lancaster County is well known for it's 29 working covered bridges. Tell you the truth, I really enjoy doing this gig!

Years ago we met a retired man who enjoyed a rather unusual and interesting hobby. He carved small covered bridges from blocks of wood. At the time I talked to him he had made over 2,400! He told me he often uses his carvings as object lessons; the bridge is an illustration of God's salvation for mankind (See the link below for further insight on the way the Navigators Ministry uses the bridge for sharing the salvation story).

When we moved to Mount Joy in 2001 we lived next to the Risser's Mill Covered Bridge which was burned down by arsonists in 2002 after we had moved from that neighborhood. The farmer next door cleaned up the charred remains of wood and made replica covered bridges for Christmas ornaments. Our dear friends, the Martins, gave us one and it is among the cherished ornaments we hang every year at Christmas.

Today's verse is the first reference to the word "parable" in Christ's teachings. "He told them many things in parables." Parables are an interesting feature of Christ's teaching methodology that He is well known for. The most memorable and simple definition we ever heard regarding a parable is the way we explain it to children and adults alike: "A parable is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning." Jesus often connected with His listeners using parables.

Many of His parables are cross cultural and cross generational so we easily understand them. In some stories we do need to learn about the customs and culture of the day to better understand them.

Matthew 13 is a series of parables dealing with the Kingdom. These parables have often been called kingdom parables and in fact most of them are introduced by this phrase, "The kingdom of heaven is like ____." "Parable" is a direct transliteration of the Greek word, in other words it sounds the same in the English as it does in the Greek, so if you can pronounce the word, parable, you know some Greek!

Jesus told these parables not only as an illustration to support His teaching, but at times the parable was His complete sermon! The crowds went home and pondered the meaning of His parables, perhaps discussing them together, which created spiritual interest for additional teaching. These parables were essentially bridges between the natural stories to which the listeners could relate and the eternal truths Christ wanted to convey.

As Christ's representatives let us use our unique God-given gifts in blessing others and also in spreading the Gospel, like the man who carved the covered bridges!

Be encouraged today, Hebrews 3:13