My Father’s Kingdom is like a desert mouse that finds her fill in the desert sands, sands scoured by the pestilence of the locusts. Look at it this way:

A desert mouse finds her food, hidden deep within the desert sands. For though the desert is dry and barren, this mouse finds ample food and water from the seeds hidden beneath the sands.

And the mouse looks to the west and sees a prelude of what is to come: the skies darken, and the shadows coalesce, and she wastes no time as she burrows deep into the sands; the sands collapse all around her, and keep her hidden.

When the locusts arrive, they darken the skies with their numbers, and they devour everything in their path. They spare no beauty, but devour the cactus flower and the shrubbery alike, licking the bone clean. And once they have exhausted all the local resources, they depart, and continue their perpetual search for food, with their scorch-and-burn technique. They engage in an internecine struggle for the remaining flora, and exhaust even that. And they leave ravenous, the desert now barren and desolate. Their method of subsistence is patently unsuited to the task. The locusts themselves succumb to starvation, then die en masse; their fetid corpses rot, and the ecosystem is severely polluted.

The desert mouse has stayed behind. With the threat dissipated, she scampers out of her burrow, and, with her uncanny perception, finds enough seeds hidden away in the desert sands, salient and readily identifiable treasures that have escaped the notice of countless rummaging locusts. This mouse knows that this desert has no dearth, and savors the desert seeds without interference.

A desert mouse survives and prospers under the most seemingly trying times. She knows that the greatest treasures are hidden from plain view, and secret, and require much searching. The desert treasures provide her with ample food and water. The countless billions of locusts do not seek such hidden treasure, and continue amok, and exhaust the resources, lay waste beauty, and perish. He who has an ear let him hear.

From The New Word: Embodying Doubting Thomas

Chapter Sixteen

When Jesus was alone, those who were around him with the Twelve asked him about the parables. With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to understand it. Without a parable he didn’t speak to them; but privately to his own disciples he explained all things. (Mark 4: 11, 33-34; WEB)

And when we were alone, Jesus explained all things to us, and the disciple Doubting Thomas recorded:

He who drinks from my mouth shall be as I AM. And I shall be in him, and he shall dwell in me, and for him the secrets hidden since before the creation of the world will be revealed, and the divine mysteries hidden through the ages will be understood. (Thomas 108)

The Living Jesus turned to me, and asked, “Have you understood my secret teaching?”

“Yes,” I replied. I take a moment to take a drink from the living waters that issue forth from Jesus’ mouth, and I am refreshed.

The Living Christ and I see a pond in a smiling meadow, and I turn to him, and face him, and say, “This is how I understand your secret teaching.”

My Father’s Kingdom is like a quiet pond where reflections one day give way to exposure, and exposure results in the boundaries of the shore expanding in all directions. Look at it this way:

Day and night, the quiet pond reflects the sky above and the surrounding meadows. Images of the sun and the clouds, and the crowning reeds and prairie grass, reflect on the surface of the pond. The sun’s rays penetrate the pond’s depths. A bird flying above sees her own reflection below. As night falls, the fireflies dance, and the pond softly glows with the moonlight and starry sky. On sunny days, a little bit of the pond becomes the sky, and on windy days, the surface images ripple as the waves crest.

            When the skies gather and darken, the heavens open, and the clouds send forth rain. The image of each raindrop is reflected on the surface of the now-effervescing water. As the raindrops connect with the pond, their reflected images disappear as fresh moisture contributes to the pond, breathing new life into the living waters. At that moment, there is neither sky above nor pond below, for the two concatenate in a baptism.

When the rain stops, what was in the sky is now in the pond, present in the surface and in the deepest depths. The depth of the pond increases, and the boundaries of the pond expand in all directions.

Thus, rainy days reveal that what is hidden in the highest clouds is the very same substance present in the deepest ponds. This revelation is not an image but reality. He who has an ear let him hear.

Beauty inspired me to write this book, and I hope you find that my words inspire you with beauty and a sense of the sublime. If you enjoyed reading the parable of the mouse, I also have dozens more, such as the parable of the pond, the lonely "vulture", the parable of the star gazer, the parable of the rocks, in my newest work "The New Word: Embodying Doubting Thomas" which you can download here http://www.lulu.com/content/252478  Each was written to convey to you a sense of magic and wonder and beauty in this world as a way to teach about spirituality.