Last July I asked Lil Bro, while he was here, to help me move my lemon tree. I've had the lemon tree for several years. A couple of summers ago it exploded with lemons. I had lemons the size of softballs, which wound up being a lot of rind and little lemon, but that was okay. I had fresh lemons.
The lemon tree has been in a place where it's protected from the winter frost but over the last year it's barely blossomed at all. It was a little too protected. Branches had started growing through the deer netting that covered the top and most of the sides but not the bottom, which was noticeable because the bottom branches were stripped bare of leaves. It wasn't quite protected enough.
So it was moved to a better place, where there is more direct sun and room to branch out, instead of up like it's been doing. I bought new deer fencing and poles and surrounded the lemon tree. I watered it well and then walked away. I noticed that there were a couple of lemons forming on the tree but that was about all.
A week ago, as I was watering the lemon tree, I noticed that there were a lot of blossoms on the tree. The bottom branches, bare of leaves, now exploded with blossoms. It was like that all over. A bee was buzzing it's way through, landing on blossom after blossom. The top of the tree wasn't straining toward the sun anymore, it was relaxing in the warmth of the sun's rays. The branches are already growing and pushing at the deer fencing...gonna have to take care of that soon. Tonight, I noticed the beginning of 8 or 9 new lemons with many, many more blossoms still to open.
With a one little move and some extra attention my lemon tree, that I was pretty sure was dying, has had a resurgence of life. It occurs to me, that my faith life is much the same. There are times when I am full of bloom, full of vitality and life. Times when all is going well and much fruit is being produced. Then there are times when all productivity ceases. When I'm straining, reaching for any glimpse of the Son that I can get, when my faith gets stripped bare and death is imminent. It's in those places that I forget that I can move. That I NEED to move. That to survive, I need a change of scenery, that I need to ask someone to help me move into the Son again...and then I need to relax in the warmth of the ray's of the Son and allow the healing and growth to begin again.
2 comments:
Oh my friend, I know you did not write this for me but you did...I had no one to help me move yesterday into the Son, but I asked Lizzie to pray for me. I think her prayers helped me move. And after school instead of going home and feeling sad and alone and stressing about life I went to the Park that I love and yet never go to and I found a place in the Sun to sit with the Son and read my Bible. I am not sure that there is growth yet, and I know there are no blossoms but I did relax a bit in the warmth.
Thanks for the beautiful analogy.
Actually in the middle of writing that you came to mind, so it might just be that God is talking to you, not me. :) Love you.
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