Limbs bending

When I was very young, younger than 10, I remember my grandfather had a pear tree. This wasn’t like the Bradford pear trees we are use to seeing in the south. It had pears on it that more resembled the kind you would buy at Walmart. I remember going to that tree when the limbs were doubled over with fruit. Looking back on it, those limbs had to be stressed. All that weight on the end, causing them to bend like a fishing rod with the next largemouth record on the end. I never saw it, but I’d imagine when the threat of a tornado came to those mountains and the winds started blowing hard, those limbs looked about the same.

Fast forward some twenty years later and I have a similar image in front of me. A Bradford pear tree loaded with succulent pears. The asphalt plant supervisor tell us, “You better get em while you can. There’s a storm coming and it’ll probably blow em all off.” I grabbed a DEF box from the shop and filled it up about half way. That was more pears than I could eat. My wife made pear preserves out of them for the first time. They were delicious! That tree beared good fruit and probably will for years to come. Still yet, those limbs bend for two reasons. First, when the limbs are loaded with fruit. Second, when the storm comes to blow them.

Naturally a sequence of events like this raises my spiritual awareness. Especially when I’m currently camping out in John 15. The verse that comes to mind is, “This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.”

‭‭John‬ ‭15:8‬ ‭NIV‬. There’s is no doubt that we are called to bear fruit. In fact the true test of a believer is to see if they bear fruit. An old pastor of mine use to say, “We are called to be fruit inspectors,” because fruit is the evidence that a believer is walking with the Lord. If a believer is not walking with the Lord, then they may not be a believer at all. I believe when Jesus said, “If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned,” he affirmed my previous statement. You’ll find this is John 15 as well. The key here is to remain in Him, the Lord, Jesus. Sometimes bearing fruit can feel a lot like a storm. In fact as I type this, I am having a hard time sleeping because this message is weighing on me. I am also in the midst of starting two business ventures that are also weighing on me. I lay down, my belly growls, is it fruit or a storm? I would say building a future for my family and building a leadership training platform looks like fruit, but you are called to be a fruit inspector. I will let you be the judge. In the mean time, my branches are starting to bend and I believe there’s fruit forming on the end of them. Praise the Lord!