Dear St. Luke’s,

The trees are starting to bud, and my irrational fear of a permanent winter is slowly starting to dissipate! If you missed the devotion where I describe this weird tic, you can read it here, but it’s mostly unnecessary. Amid winter, I was busy getting ready for this very moment. There is an odd piece of land between our house and my in-law’s house that was overrun with briars and other unpleasant things. When we first moved in, I made a path through the briars, and I slowly started to imagine what that land could become, and we eventually decided to plant fruit trees. Soon there will be a total of eight, but now there are just two trees in the ground, and I am beyond excited. I cannot wait to see kids climbing the trees to pick fruit, and we can make pies and the whole bit. I’ve done some research, and growing fruit trees is a bit more complicated than planting them and waiting.

I think I have the PH correct, drainage looks good, and they have a dedicated sprinkler, but I am a bit worried about pruning. My initial plan was not to prune, but everything I read insists it is essential. Pruning makes fruit easier to pick and produces better quality fruit. When peaches become too crowded, many will not mature correctly and will taste "off," or will be completely inedible, so before they start to bud you have to strategically cut off much of the fruit-bearing wood. This paradoxical approach is supposed to give you the most high-quality fruit without the need for ladders.

Knowing that I will have to clip off most of the tiny little branches from my sapling has made me realize that I have another weird tic. Cutting off something that will make fruit, and increase overall efficiency makes me needlessly weary. Would more fruit be better? Should I sacrifice my ease at picking fruit to get the largest crop possible? The consistent answer from experts is “No." Tomorrow I will arm myself with my shears and start clipping my poor little tree.

The lesson for this coming Sunday is very arboreal. Christ tells his disciples a parable about a fig tree not bearing fruit. The owner wants it cut down, but the gardener intercedes and convinces the owner to give it another chance and he’ll give it a helping hand by fertilizing the tree. In our lives, Christ is like the gardener by interceding for us and giving us the best chance possible to bear fruit, but it is ultimately up to us to live a life worthy of bearing that fruit. In the parable, the gardener gives the tree fertilizer much in the same way my peach saplings are surrounded by leaf compost. If we dig deeper, we must realize that to bear fruit, we have to get rid of excess branches, in addition to having the spiritual food that we need to survive.

Fruit is good, but not all fruit is created equally. If the fruit does not ripen, or if it rots on the stem because it is out of reach, then it wastes the soil just as if the tree did not bear fruit at all. I am still reflecting on this, but I wonder if I need to work on letting go of things, even if they are good, so I can bear better fruit in other areas of my life. I want to have it all, as I think most of us do, but by realizing that I am only one tree, I can learn to let go of some of my branches, so I can see the good fruit that is already before me.

Blessings,

Nick