The scenario described in the Parable of the Weeds is quite familiar to me because I am a gardener. One day, I was pulling weeds, and there was a cucumber plant that was already growing amid the weeds. However, because I was a little careless, I failed to see the cucumber stem with some weeds resembling its leaves. I pulled up the cucumber plant.

As a gardener, I know I must remove the weeds because they will compete with the plants and sap moisture and nutrients from the garden. But unlike plants, we cannot just uproot people. It is challenging to distinguish which is “weed” and which is “wheat.” It is not for us to identify which is which. It is God who can.

In our world, bad and good, evil and angels live together. The Lord allowed them to co-exist. Sometimes we encounter problems, and we wish we eradicate the wrong people that cause trouble and hardship in our life and the world.

This parable of Jesus is about patience and being available for one another because human beings can change.

Many of us heard about the 12-step program idea that is most popular with alcoholic and narcotic rehabilitation programs. Those programs have achieved a solid reputation for supporting persons seeking to change themselves from the difficulties of addiction. The first step is “the admission of our powerlessness and the recognition of the Power greater than ourselves, who could restore our sanity.”

We all have our weaknesses, and we have sinned against God. The difference is that some people’s sins are made public, and others remain private. Therefore, we must admit that we are sinners and part of the weeds. If the Lord, the master of life, will pull all weeds, then no one in this world remains, for we have already been removed.

While some of us made some wrong choices, the good Lord also gives us opportunities to change. Therefore, if one wants to be rehabilitated from being a sinner, the Lord’s forgiveness is available, and change will be coming.

Someone in our family might often make wrong choices that burden us. We might have a coworker who causes a lot of tension at work. Before we cut that person off, wait and offer as much wisdom and love as possible, and treat that person with dignity and respect.

I would like to clarify that nothing in Jesus’s parable tells us we should become indifferent and tolerant of the wrongdoings of others. The Christian way of letting go of someone destructive in our lives is like transferring a seedling or a plant. You don’t pull it off carelessly, but you dig the soil along with the plant’s roots so it will not die. You can move the plant to another environment where it can grow and flourish.

Let’s give each other a chance to grow.