In the apple-growing state of Maine in America, I was visiting a farmer friend and saw an apple tree so loaded down with fruit that the branches had to be propped up to keep them from breaking under the weight of apples.
When I remarked about the fruitfulness of the tree, my friend said to me, "Go over and look at that tree's trunk down near the bottom."
There I saw that the tree had been badly wounded by a big gash across its side. The farmer explained, "That is something we have learned about apple trees. When the growing tree tends to run to wood and leaves and not to fruit, we stop it by wounding it, by cutting into its bark. And we don't know why, but almost always the result is that the tree turns its energies to producing fruit."
Could that be a parable for some of us human apple trees in the human orchard?
When I remarked about the fruitfulness of the tree, my friend said to me, "Go over and look at that tree's trunk down near the bottom."
There I saw that the tree had been badly wounded by a big gash across its side. The farmer explained, "That is something we have learned about apple trees. When the growing tree tends to run to wood and leaves and not to fruit, we stop it by wounding it, by cutting into its bark. And we don't know why, but almost always the result is that the tree turns its energies to producing fruit."
Could that be a parable for some of us human apple trees in the human orchard?
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