{"id":101,"date":"2003-07-01T21:44:33","date_gmt":"2003-07-02T02:44:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/melissakaysimonds.com\/?p=101"},"modified":"2012-04-24T21:48:50","modified_gmt":"2012-04-25T02:48:50","slug":"a-lesson-in-a-pear-tree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/melissakaysimonds.com\/?p=101","title":{"rendered":"A Lesson In A Pear Tree"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u201c\u2026and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.\u201d John 15:2<\/em><\/p>\n

I have a pear tree that hasn\u2019t the sense God gave a goose. Oh, it\u2019s a beautiful tree in April, all white with blossoms \u2013 the promise of fruit. Come May the tiny pears appear, clustered along the slender branches like coffee beans. It\u2019s tempting to think the tree is a wonder, a fruit-bearing marvel. But by July it\u2019s a sad sight indeed. The branches bend low under the weight of the golf ball-sized pears. They begin to break and whole branches are lost. They tear from the trunk, leaving wounds for bugs and worms to enter. By late September, when the fruit finally begins to ripen \u2013 finally gets sweet enough to eat, the tree is a mess.<\/p>\n

A friend who was raised in the country wised me up a few years ago. \u201cYou may not want to, but you\u2019re going to have to take off some of those pears,\u201d Neva told me. \u201cYou\u2019ll be glad in the fall because the ones you leave will get much bigger.\u201d She was right. The past couple of years I\u2019ve thinned the pears. Both tree and fruit are healthier for it.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t suppose it\u2019s an accident\u00a0the Lord frequently compares His people to trees: \u201c\u2026trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.\u201d (Isaiah 61:3) Or that He compares our industry to fruit. And the other afternoon, as I was sweating and balancing on the limbs of my old pear tree, it occurred to me\u00a0I have to pick and choose among my own labors just as I picked and chose the pears that would make it to maturity. My friend was right. It\u2019s painful to pluck the immature fruit, to waste hundreds of little pears because the tree can\u2019t support them. But certainly it isn\u2019t as painful as cutting off the things in my own life\u00a0I can\u2019t support or hope to see through to maturity. That\u2019s pure agony.<\/p>\n

Now if I were a serious pear grower I would build a structure around that tree to hold up the branches. It might not be pretty and I would surely still have to pull off some fruit, but not nearly as much would be lost. The point is we all have to choose, and a lot of our choices must be based not only on the promises the Lord has placed inside us, but also on the circumstances we have built in our lives. We might not like to admit we have built them, but if they are present we probably have. We\u2019re too blessed to be victims.<\/p>\n

Ecclesiastes 7:8 wisely teaches that the end of a thing is better than its beginning. Maybe it\u2019s my age showing, but I\u2019m tired of beginnings. I want to see the things I\u2019ve started through to their end. I don\u2019t really want to start anything new until I have, lest I look back when I\u2019m old and find a lifetime of unfinished business. God has prospered some things in my life. Others less so. Seems to me I ought to pay attention to that. That I ought to nurture that on which I see His blessing, and be willing to let go of that on which I don\u2019t.<\/p>\n

I imagine my pear tree cried a little over the fruit I took, right before it breathed a sigh of relief. The branches that drooped are now high in the air. The tree honestly looks happier. And though the pears are fewer now you should see how big those that remain are getting! Impressive!<\/p>\n

Come to think of it, I\u2019m feeling a little lighter myself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u201c\u2026and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.\u201d John 15:2 I have a pear tree that hasn\u2019t the sense God gave a goose. Oh, it\u2019s a beautiful tree in April, all white with blossoms … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8Mo02-1D","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":86,"url":"https:\/\/melissakaysimonds.com\/?p=86","url_meta":{"origin":101,"position":0},"title":"Pro-Christ","author":"lsimonds","date":"February 1, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"And they said, \u201cIs not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it then that He says, \u2018I have come down from heaven\u2019?\u201d John 6:42 Fasten your seat belts. This month is my most radical column to date. At the risk of shamelessly\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2003"","block_context":{"text":"2003","link":"https:\/\/melissakaysimonds.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":56,"url":"https:\/\/melissakaysimonds.com\/?p=56","url_meta":{"origin":101,"position":1},"title":"Hope Copes","author":"lsimonds","date":"April 1, 2002","format":false,"excerpt":"\u201cAnd now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.\u201d 1 Corinthians 13:13 I think it\u2019s significant that the Bible assigns hope a place right up there with faith and love. It lets me know that God thinks hope is important, that it is a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2002"","block_context":{"text":"2002","link":"https:\/\/melissakaysimonds.com\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":50,"url":"https:\/\/melissakaysimonds.com\/?p=50","url_meta":{"origin":101,"position":2},"title":"Anticipation","author":"lsimonds","date":"February 1, 2002","format":false,"excerpt":"\u201cBut if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.\u201d Romans 8:25 The Lord convicted me about worrying the other day. I know it was Him. 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