Our family has been gardening the last few years—if you want to hear from the LORD---might I suggest gardening!?  He chose those parables for a reason!  Planting a garden will preach some lessons to your heart condition!

Over the last few years of gardening, we have also ordered various fruit and nut trees.  Since we’ve only been in this region for a little while, the learning curve is steep. When we ordered our trees, they came from out of state so the nursery made sure what we ordered could grow in our zone. 

That, in and of itself, was such a lesson to me. I may want to grow various fruit, but depending on my growing zone, it may not be possible.  I must know my soil and climate conditions first and then plan accordingly! 

The nursery gave us detailed descriptions of what other varieties we should plant with trees for ultimate fruiting,

 Turns out, like kind help produce a greater harvest. The nursery wouldn’t ship the trees until they were dormant to avoid shocking them. They wrapped them snuggly to keep their bare roots moist and their branches from breaking, They also sent along detailed instructions to properly plant them.   

But after that, we were on our own to figure out long-term care for our new trees. So, we’ve been learning how to tend to our trees and doing our best to learn as we go what they need for maximum growth. 

A year ago last fall, after reading many books, we pruned one of the older trees for the first time.  It tripled in size last spring and summer!  So, pruning really does help with growth—go figure--even though we hated to chop off branches that looked good. 

I like to think of Bible study just like that—we are learning about proper “tree” maintenance—since trees are often used to represent people in Scripture.  The Bible Project has a great podcast on this topic. 

 Right now, we are working together learning what will grow in our current climate, finding like kind and like mind for ultimate growth and fruiting, waiting on the right season for transplanting some of the newer saplings, all while we tend to the older trees we’ve had growing for quite some time. There is probably lot of pruning that needs to be done—at least there is with me!  Life gets busy and trees get neglected.

 But the LORD has long-term vision for our trees—both new and old.  The young saplings will not always be so much work.  Once they take root and grow for a few years, the promise of fruit will materialize and continue throughout the generations.  The older trees, too, can certainly withstand some pruning and will abound in fruit. 

Fun fact: because they produce their own food, trees are considered producers.  Animals? They are considered consumers.  Our goal is to be producers!  We want to multiply the seeds so that there is plenty of food for future generations.

We can look at growth in two ways, we can plant a lot of trees, or we can grow bigger trees with deeper roots.

Both are great, we just need to discern which growing season we are in, and how we want to grow.  But either way, if we plant those trees well and nurture them, the roots will grow deep. The tree and the fruit will continue to live on well beyond our lifespan.