Guest Post by Karen Burroughs
I’d heard that citrus trees can be a bit tricky to grow – no idea why - this is Florida after all! But the price was right, so my husband and I decided to risk purchasing a little grapefruit tree. Long story short: the few leaves it came with eventually shriveled and died. It looked downright pitiful.
At the one-year mark, we cried UNCLE, admitted defeat, and pronounced the grapefruit tree dead. If it were a person, we would have conducted a funeral for it. We had learned our lesson, accepted our loss, and admitted that Citrus Trees Are Tricky to Grow.
But then, lo and behold, what should unexpectedly appear? Shiny new leaves and three tiny green things! Mercy Minerva! The tree was alive, AND we were having triplets! But then . . . the two littlest babies fell off. Sadness. But, one hardy soul hung on. It grew and grew until it became what actually looked like an adult grapefruit.
“I fretted. Is it a grapefruit or a pomelo?”
At that point, using my app that identifies plants, I was dismayed to learn that it was not a grapefruit tree, after all, but a pomelo tree. Boo hiss! I am not a fan of pomelo fruit.
Yet, I kept wondering, who should I trust, the garden shop or my app? I fretted. Is it a grapefruit or a pomelo? Day after day we walked by it and wondered. Then, in the fullness of time, it began to turn yellow! Team Grapefruit cheered, even though pomelos remained a possibility.
So, still, we watch and we wait. As they say, “The proof is in the pudding,” tasting it!
In the meantime, I love how this little tree and its one, lone grapefruit are becoming a rich source of "parables" for me. Verses like, "By their fruit you shall know them," or “He will be like a tree which bears fruit in its season," or “Your hands made me and formed me,” take on deeper meaning.
Overall, the most enlightening lesson is the TIME involved. Our little grapefruit is taking FOREVER to ripen! It has been hanging on to that tree for MONTHS!! I never knew the ripening process was so excruciatingly long. But why should I be surprised? Case in point: ME! I have been “maturing” or ripening on the vine (John 15) for more than a few seasons now! Some seasons have been a little dry, even a little shrively. (I don’t think that’s a word, but you get where I’m going.)
God tells us to abide in the vine. Our job is to simply stay planted – for as long as it takes – no matter the weather. He is responsible for the fruit. This grapefruit tree is just being itself – doing what trees are created to be & do. And that’s all God expects of us.
Living With Eternal Intentionality®
“And this is eternal life, that they may know You the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John 17:3).
How does this verse shed light on your spiritual growth? “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5)
When have you attempted to bring about spiritual growth using your own strength?
Consider a time when you tried to produce fruit living out the identity of someone else instead of abiding in the identity God uniquely created for you? What was it like?
Karen Burroughs, on staff with Cru, serves full time with Inside Out Jail Ministries to “water and fertilize” the hearts of incarcerated and trafficked women. She says, “I am humbled. Though outwardly I’m not yellowing (just wrinkling), inwardly I am renewed and invigorated in the fruit God is bearing in my life and in the lives of the women He has given me the privilege to know and serve.”
