In ParableLife many of Jesus’ most familiar parables are examined in three ways: From the context of the text, through an imaginative retelling of the story behind the story of the parable, and how the parable looks today in real time through actual stories of people living now. There is a growing conversation about what it means to live as a follower of Jesus here and now. Living as a part of the body of Christ is more than just finding a slot on a church’s organizational chart and more than acquiring an impressive collection of Bible data by filling a chair in a sanctuary or Sunday School class. To many, the kingdom of God looks like a tangle of beautiful, sloppy, fast-growing rainforest plants, not a tidy line-up of plants safely contained in five-gallon containers on a shady patio.