A Tree in the Hands of a Master Gardner.

The art of growing a fruit tree is one that I have been endeavoring to learn for a number of years. It is a slow process of working with the natural tendencies of a tree in an attempt to form it in such a way so as to produce a maximum harvest. If you were to ask a gardener however, how to go about manipulating the tree to accomplish this task there will be some struggle for them to come up with a consistent answer. While there are scientific principles involved and exact answers, there is much more to it. In short, forming a tree is more a work of art than it is a science.

It takes time as the gardener watches a young tree grow into maturity, at first training the young branches to grow in the proper direction with constraints against their natural tendencies and then when they are set in position, begin the methodical process of pruning them so that when they finally come to maturity they are balanced and produce a bumper crop of fruit.

            For the past year I have been in the process of training the branches on my young apricot tree, I was reminded of Psalm 1:1-3 which says,

“Blessed is the man that walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful.  But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law does he meditate day and night.  And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he does shall prosper.”

As I thought about it, I began to consider just how much we are like trees. We are being tended to by the Master Gardener whose Spirit is like water when it refreshes, whose Word is like sunshine causing us to grow up toward him and whose faith is like the earth which becomes our foundation for living. But much more than that, we are in his hands and he is constantly training, pruning and tenderly caring for us as he watches and waits for us to mature, knowing that when the time is right, our purpose will manifest itself and bring forth a harvest of fruit.

            Brian Dodson