Matthew 21:19
Seeing a lone fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it except leaves only; and He said to it, "No longer shall there ever be any fruit from you." And at once the fig tree withered.
Last Sunday, Mike preached about the vine and the branches and he asked the question, "What good does the fruit do for the branches?". Obviously, the point he was trying to make needed the body to respond, "No good at all".
But.. I kept insisting that the fruit draws water through the branches until he asked me to go back to teaching Children's Church.
I don't know if it is true, but I've been told that my Japanese Crimson Queen Maple may lose its branches this year because the leaves froze off this spring. Being a fruitless tree, these branches will dry up and die because there are no leaves.
Jackie heard that there is a chance of "shocking" a tree back to life by putting a box of Miracle-Gro on it once a week. Of course, I assumed that was just a good marketing scheme by the makers of Miracle-Gro.
As you can see from the picture, leaves are returning to the base (top of the trunk), but are not making it down the branches.
For this season, I may have many questions:
1. Did the leaves "suck" water?
2. Would fruit have "sucked" water better?
3. Did the Miracle-Gro have any affect on the new growth?
4. Will the leaves return to the branches next year?
5. Will the whole tree wither and die?
Given all the freezing and thawing in life as a child of God, I do know there is one thing that I have no question about:
... having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude.
Colossians 2:6-8
2 comments:
Like the observations on the tree. We lost a huge tree out front last year that keeps putting out shoots though it's been cut down for a year...just amazes me.
Contrarian...I need to look that up. Would the Mrs. say that means you are a contrary servant?
:) Couldn't pass that up.
Great to see you "branching out".
I am pretty contrary about most things, sometimes it is just hard to read whether I am embracing an idea or smothering it in sarcasm.
I like to watch others come to their own conclusions.
Jackie would definitely call me a contrary servant in the kitchen. She won't let me near it because of my obsession with clear horizontal flat surfaces and extreme disregard for near empty containers.
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