A parable is a story in which a real and earthly thing is used to parallel or illustrate a spiritual or heavenly thing. Such a story acts as a "riddle" that both veils and reveals all at once -- veiling the spiritual behind words that reveal the earthly and which can be penetrated to reach the spiritual by those "who have ears to hear." Jesus tells us that He spoke in parables precisely to veil and reveal, to speak, in a sense, "secretly" while not in secret at all.