Recognising fruits and trees

Let's cut to the chase today. I have a question for you. When you see a mango tree for example, how do you know it's a mango tree? Let's say it together: "because I can see mango fruits on the tree". Exactly! Apologies, I'm being patronising.

I mean you could also just be really smart and so fascinated by trees that you can identify them without seeing their fruit. Perhaps you could teach me a thing or two sometime? 🤔

I probably didn't cut to the chase eventually but a little waffling doesn't hurt, now does it? The point I'm trying to make is the fruits we display tell others the kind of tree we are. We know a tree by its fruit and we don't isolate trees from the fruits that are found on them. Our words, actions, mannerisms, and character amongst others are akin to those mango fruits.

“A good friend is first a good person, A kind colleague is first a kind person, a selfless partner is first a selfless person, a responsible parent is first a responsible individual and so on. It’s the state of a person's heart (the state of the tree) that's important because there would come a time when our roles would not be enough of a reason for us to act "appropriately" whatever that means given the context.”

But if a person is "good" because they are accountable to their God, accountable to themselves, accountable to their assignment and those they have been called to, then it goes beyond being a good partner, parent, employee etc but about being a good person since this goes beyond the temporary action or roles in need of fulfilling.

A wise minister once said (paraphrased): “…gifts are given but fruits are cultivated.” That’s good news because this means that if we're unhappy with the fruits we're bearing, we can fix it by providing the tree with all it needs to bear good fruits. We can be intentional about our cultivation process and weed out every thorn that seeks to starve the fruits we’re capable of bearing from manifesting. We can expose our branches to the (sun) light of God’s word and other relevant material so that eventually we can become a good tree that bears good fruit or better fruits than those we already bear.

Let’s not dwell on our mistakes of how we may have misrepresented ourselves in the past, we can learn from those mistakes and start afresh. Hear these words: "Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognised by its fruit (Mt.12:33)".

Let’s be patient with our cultivation process and not get discouraged when we make a mistake. Just as every fruit takes its time before manifestation, we must believe that as we take responsibility, in due time we’ll reap a harvest. Indeed, in due time we’ll be trees that bear good fruits.

Take-home points:

• Let's not present ourselves in ways that we don't want to be considered.

• Let's not get carried away by roles but who we are as people irrespective of the roles we fulfil.

• Negative character traits and habits can be corrected. We can grow, and mature in character for the better, if we are willing to put the work in.

Image Credit:

• Photos from unsplash by Gustavo Zambelli and Andreas M