One might say that it is impossible for us to accomplish great deeds --- but that we are perfectly able to do any number of small deeds.  I suspect that the last lines of today's Gospel reading are calling our attention to this fact, urging us to do what we can with what little we think we have, to seize the opportunities that God gives us in the people he sends into our lives, the difficulties and challenges he presents us with.  We do not enter the Kingdom with one great leap of faith, one blind and final choice: we are pilgrims who know our Destination, know our Guide, and advance one step at a time on a Way that is sometimes narrow and difficult, sometimes smooth and joyous. 

The Kingdom is a small seed to start with and grows only slowly and imperceptibly in us day by day to become this "largest of shrubs."  But we must remember that it is not us who are responsible for the growth: God is the one working through us, achieving his saving work, if we cooperate with him --- and that is to a great extent a matter of our getting out of his way. 

Today let us focus on the joy that our Father feels as we work to be like him in our little ways; let us be simple, loving, generous, ready to forget our selves for the sake of others.  Let us center on the present moment, on what God offers us and asks of us here and now.