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Tending Fig Trees


He who tends a fig tree will eat its fruit, and he who looks after his master will be honored. (Proverbs 27:18) 

          This has been a summer to begin to peek ahead, just a little. As I’ve noted before, I wasn’t going to work outside, but I’ve been working outside a lot. Over the last several years, we’ve removed five trees and I have no idea how many bushes from the property. Some had been around since the sixties. None were fewer than ten years old. Since then, I’ve stumbled around with my gardens, asking, “What do I want to plant this year?” without considering anything more long range.
          This summer, that’s changing. As I considered what bushes to put in the front yard, and then what trees to put in the back, I had to decide what I want, and for the front yard, the first key was nature and beauty. I want birds. As I’ve considered more, I want butterflies. I’ve planted service berry bushes, Echinacea, butterfly flowers, fennel, oregano, and garlic chives toward that end. The south end has been decided. I’m doing research to figure out what to put in the north end. In back, I put a crab apple for more birds, and a peach tree for me. For the most part, the back yard will be the “fig tree” whose fruit I’ll eat.
          I’ve done a little “fig tree” tending in the house, too, but throwing out some stuff, and organizing some other stuff. It feels strange, to start to work toward a someday, to start to tend things more than I have. Floating was so much easier, but the results haven’t been good. 
          As I write this, I find myself wondering about my spiritual garden, and my ministry garden. What fig trees are planted there, and how have I been doing at tending them? To tell the truth, I’ve done about the same with those gardens as I have with my physical garden. I’ve been pretty good about keeping the kudzu and hogweed out. I think I know what I want to plant, but I haven’t been as diligent as I probably should be. I tend to be especially ambivalent about my ministry garden. Right now, it’s limited, and that’s OK. But that doesn’t mean that I can’t do research to find out what to plant and how to care for it. That doesn’t mean I can’t be more intentional about it. Definite food for thought.

 

 

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