Redbud Blossoms and Fig Trees
“Then [Jesus] told this parable: A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the gardener, ‘See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?’ He replied, ‘Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’”—Luke 13:6-9.
There is a wild redbud tree outside my office window that in the spring had beautiful pink budding flower clusters very close to the stem. The tree is in the middle of a line of wild bushes and hardwood trees. For several years I saw no new life on it. Then, one spring, when I was outside, I noticed these beautiful blossoms and wondered where they were coming from.
When I went back to my office, I could not find the tree. Then I looked up from my desk. There they were, high above the other trees. The tree was flowering only in the canopy above my window. Lower down in my direct vision there were no blossoms. It gave me pause, and I determined to stop during the day to look up from my line of vision—to interrupt my work to glance away and take in the beauty of the blossoms.
One more lesson from my blossoming redbud tree: Very near its trunk, it has divided into three parts. For years, it looked as though only one division was living and flowering. The other two large sections had no leaves or blossoms. Then, this year, I notice that at the very top of the middle division, clusters of blossoms have formed.
I am reminded of the fig tree in the Gospels. Jesus calls us to be patient and expectant. What is difficult to detect and may seem to be dead may still be very much alive and capable of producing beauty and fruit.
Do not give up hope. New life continues to grow out of what seems dead. Nature keeps telling us this over and over again if we only stop, look, and listen.
Joanna joannaseibert.com