Weeds and Wheat

In Matthew 13: 23-30 the farmer decides to let wheat and weeds grow together. He trusts that the weeds will not overwhelm the wheat and destroy it. Sometimes we see ourselves as like wheat, the good stuff, and people who are unlike us, as the weeds. We do not care to be around them. They might "infect" us or disturb our way of life. Gated communities are made up of such people. So are country clubs.

In religious circles we do not care to hang around much with people who do not agree with us or even look like us. We compare and contrast. We look for comfortable communities of worship, filled with people just like we see ourselves. In my own world, in my own country I am the wheat. If I travel to another country or in some cases to another very different neighborhood, I am the weeds, the outsider, the stranger.

Weeds and wheat: it might be all relative, you think?