|
Dear Church School Friends,
How long does it take a tree to grow? Particularly a fig tree?
While I certainly can't say for sure, I remember planting a tree in my childhood home's front yard as a child and watching it steadily overtake me. Still, at first, it seemed to grow so slowly!
This Sunday's Gospel includes the story of a fig tree that has not brought forth any fruit and so the owner of the vineyard where it was planted ordered it to be cut down until the gardener intervened. Give me a year, the gardener said.
A year to tend, to fertilize and weed and prune and watch. It takes time for good things to grow – a lesson for all parts of our lives, a parable against hurry, that teaches us how to nurture those traits we want rather than throwing up our hands and walking away instead of giving that growth time.
| 
