I discovered the most surprising thing about my dog, Moses, aka Mo. If you've heard me talk about this big guy, you know that he is a work in progress when it comes to responding to commands (let's be honest, all dog trainers would tell you it is the owner who is the work in progress!). Despite Mo graduating from Petco's "puppy level one class," he dramatically struggles to respond to the most simple command— "SIT!"  I don't quite remember what inspired us to do this, but one night, Ethan wanted to try commanding Mo in Mandarin after our dear friends Kelly and Donovan Kuan taught us a couple of simple phrases. To our literal shock and awe, Mo immediately responded to the Mandarin phrase "sit, dog."

As I have been studying the parables, I find it amazing how creative Jesus is in getting his listeners to respond. His parables are full of challenges and corrections that, if directly spoken to his listeners, many would tune out. Jesus uses the indirect communication of parables to get in through the "backdoor" of our brains to change our worldview! I think I might be like Mo more than I realize. I have been a Christian for many, many years now, and I can hear the same sentiments over and over and never really grasp or respond. Yet, in a moment, the Lord can penetrate my heart and mind with a simple word, image, realization, scripture, or parable.  We will study the Wicked Tenants parable in Luke 20: 9–19.

I pray that in our time together, the Lord will meet each of us and speak a refreshed word that we can hear and receive. Praise God that his challenges and convictions towards us come in the form of abundant grace and creativity. This parable is an endlessly deep passage to reflect on the identity of Christ and the life he calls us to live.