For Christmas this year we were given an unusual gift – an adopted cherry tree. We love cherries in our house but I was a little surprised to receive an adoption certificate for a fruit tree!
However we have had monthly email updates about our tree, we unfortunately had to miss the blossom tour due to lock-down, but this week we were able to go and harvest our cherry tree. What a joy!
The tree was laden with fruit. I had no idea how many different variations on bunches of cherries there were; individual cherries in a line, pairs (the ones you can hang over your ears), and mini bunches of up to 6! I was in my element enjoying the peace of nature and lushness of freshly picked fruit.
However about halfway through, I took a step back and looked at the half-bare tree. We had been told to remove every piece of fruit, including the bad ones, which were to be discarded separately in a bag. I had a moment of sadness, almost feeling guilty for taking “all” the fruit, as if I was in some way damaging the tree. If you know me well I’m all about community, doing things together, sharing resources, taking just what you need etc. It felt quite surreal to take everything from the tree….
It was-a-stop-in-your-tracks moment. Enough of a pause to realise that actually I was fulfilling the purpose of the cherry tree. It had produced fruit for me – and others – to enjoy. If I did not harvest all the fruit, no-one would benefit from it and the natural cycle would stop. Worse still, if I left the bad fruit on the tree, the dreaded cherry fruit fly would be attracted to it and destroy not only our tree, but the others all around it. So many parallels and life lessons could be drawn from this experience but my take-aways so far are:
· once again a grateful opportunity to marvel at the complexity of nature in God’s creation
· a reminder that life is seasonal; whichever season we find ourselves in right now, it is temporary
· moments of great blessing will follow times of struggle and loss
In life we have to pass through times of pruning, discarding the rubbish and even feeling stripped of everything in order to make room for fresh and fruitful opportunities.
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to find the Sunday video on YouTube
This week’s HubKids has lots more fun activities to do as a family It’s a great chance to find new ways of connecting together. You can find the activities and what you need to do them HERE
