Sunday, June 21, 2015

The Thwarted Tree #T

The words of the Master as recorded in Matthew chapter seven.

13 Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:
14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
17 Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.

We have a weeping cherry tree in our front yard. In the spring of the year, it puts on a lovely white gown and we enjoy this splendor for a brief season, then the petals fall and we have a green tree in the yard. We might compare the tree to a young person in the bloom of youth, beauty to behold.

Now for a normal cherry tree the next phase of the creature's life would be devoted to the production of fruit, glistening, globular, precious fruit desirable for food.  Not so for this tree.  When its splendiferous flowering phase is past so is its production past.  And yet it will try to be a cherry tree, for close examination will show that a very small number of the abundant blossoms will attempt to produce fruit.  Look very closely, for the fruits are tiny indeed, scarcely larger than a BB.  But they are round, and some ripen, but they are extremely few and sour.

Why is this?  The tree looks like a cherry tree: correct bark, correct leaves, blossoms in the springtime.  But the tree has been corrupted.  The arborist or the dendrologist or the geneticist or whoever has been messing with the tree has thwarted its mission so that it will produce only fleeting beauty but nothing of lasting value, nothing to provide sustenance.

Do not let your mission be thwarted by external forces.  The cherry tree may have had no choice, but you have.

4 comments:

Vee said...

Despite genetic engineering, your little tree makes an effort to fulfill its original purpose. People now purchase canned and frozen cherries, but still enjoy the beauty of the white blooms. Your tree is spectacular.

Marsha Young said...

Good thoughts - we too often allow concerns about appearance take precedence over our true purpose. Nice post.

vanilla said...

Vee, I will say that brief though the display is, much like a bride in her wedding day finery, we do enjoy it a lot. Miss the cherry pie, though.

Marsha, not to say appearance is everything, but for some people it is right there near the top. Thank you.

Lin said...

I'm guessing there are some folks who enjoy the show, but not the clean-up afterwards.

We had apple trees in our yard when we moved in. Three of them---and they were crowded, leaning, and unhappy. We thinned them out, cut down one and sprayed for a few years so that we could harvest apples.

What a mess those trees were! The apples were not edible--too many bruises, bees, half-eaten by birds, squirrels, and bugs. They would drop all over the yard and cause a mess...along with the danger of bees stinging should you step on one.

We ended up removing them.

So, I'm guessing some smarty pants arborist came up with a solution for folks like us.