Ezekiel 17:23 · World English Bible
I will plant it in the mountain of the height of Israel; and it will produce boughs, and bear fruit, and be a good cedar. Birds of every kind will dwell in the shade of its branches.
A frail sprig on a high place is promised the size to shelter every kind of bird one day. To a heart still small this stays a promise, and the illness that spoils it is impatience: wanting to be the great cedar now and despising one's own thin beginnings.
From the Sufism reading below.
The same verse, read by one tradition.
SUFISM
A frail sprig on a high place is promised the size to shelter every kind of bird one day. To a heart still small this stays a promise, and the illness that spoils it is impatience: wanting to be the great cedar now and despising one's own thin beginnings. The cure is a humble trust that keeps sending down roots and leaves the growing to Him.
The one who plants the sprig also spreads its shade, so the good a person may one day give others is really His generosity rising through a life that only let itself be planted.
Sufism lens
Where are you despising a beginning that is actually healthy?
A tree wide enough to hold a hundred birds began as something you could snap between two fingers. The great thing is the small thing left alone long enough.
Suzuki told students that a beginner's awkwardness is not a stage to get past but the ground the whole thing grows from. Wanting to be advanced is the main way people stall.
Epictetus said no fruit ripens in an hour, so do not demand of yourself a harvest out of season. Let the thing take the time it takes.
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