It was the wrong time of the year to have AC problems at the
Redd household, but none the less the repairman was here. While inspecting our outside units he
informed us that part of the problem was our huge fig tree was blocking the air
intake and exhaust and should be trimmed back.
Please understand, this wasn’t any fig tree. This fig tree was planted right after we
moved in – some 13 years ago. It
started off as a stick of a fig tree, but now measures some eleven-foot tall and
just as wide. It has faithfully provided
plenty of figs over the years and is fiercely defended by one Mrs. Sharon
Redd. It is HER tree. It is HER baby. Those are HER figs to eat and share with
others. So the idea of lopping off a
main branch of this tree brought shivers to my spine. But none-the-less, it had to be done.
Out came the saw – off came the branch and to the ground the
limb went separated from all its fig tree brethren and sisteren. For the first time in its life the branch was
abandoned, separated from the security, nourishment and “fellowship” of the
tree.
But the worst was yet to come.
After watching a YouTube Video on how to plant cuttings from
a fig tree we took the branch and begin to strip its leaves and figs. One by one each leave was ripped away. Even the figs, which were too premature to
eat, where plucked and tossed aside.
Then we began to chop up the branch.
The branch that was over ten-foot with many sub-branches became a bucket
full of eighteen-inch sticks.
Within a matter of moments the branch went from flourishing
to being lopped off, stripped bare and chopped up.
The video told us to put the small samplings in dampness
until the root fibers begin to show, then transplant them into the soil and
then what was one branch will have the potential of being many new fruit bearing
fig trees. That part is yet to come, but
the potential is there.
I came inside and flipped on Sports Center when it occurred
to me. This is an illustration of the
Chapter of Life I am in right now. Also –
please understand that God is the Master Gardener. It is He who prunes, strips and plants. Bear with me here and see if this may not be
part of your story too.
Having pastored churches for over 30 years, I knew the
security of being part of the “Fig Tree.”
Last year I was “lopped off” the
tree. God looked at me and much like
the Redd Fig Tree, I had grown in ways that Fig Trees shouldn’t and He took the
saw and lopped me away from the security, nourishment and “fellowship” of the
Fig Tree. By the way, the Redd Fig Tree
is fine, still bearing fruit and flourishing.
You see the branch needed the Fig Tree – the Fig Tree didn’t need the
branch. So it is true of the Fig Tree
God lopped me from.
Next God took and stripped me bare. All the leaves that I so proudly displayed
were stripped away. I was bare for all
to see. It was painful. It was terrifying. It was humbling. But what some might have seen as a branch to
be discarded, God saw as a branch that in His care would bare even more fruit –
perhaps even more fruit than had I stayed attached to the Fig Tree.
Next God began to cut me down to size. You see, I was in His hand. He was doing the stripping. He was doing the cutting. He was preparing me to be planted, not just in
one place, but in many places far across the world.
It has been a year now.
God has taken these “cuttings” and has planted them in the lives of over
300 pastors/leaders/evangelists in Ethiopia.
He has placed “cuttings” in three churches in San Carlos Nicaragua. He has placed “cuttings” in the men and women
of The Gathering. And if I understand
the direction of God correctly, He will place “cuttings” in over 1500 more
pastors/teachers/evangelists in Ethiopia during 2016.
Yet it is still painful at times. It is still frightening. It is still so humbling. I long for the fellowship of the Fig Tree. I miss the security. I miss the nourishment. But I am in the hands of the Master Gardener
and right now He has chosen to separate me from the tree, strip me bare, cut me
up and plant me elsewhere. Terrified,
frightened, humbled and excited – I trust Him.
Maybe one day, from the Redd Fig Tree, there will be many
huge, fruit-bearing fig trees that can trace their origin back to the day the
AC man said, “That branch needs to go.”
I pray, hope and believe that one day there will be many “Fig
Trees” that will look back and see that God brought a naked stick, planted it,
nourished it and now it bears fruit, security and nourishment for people for
generations to come.
It was God who cut.
It was God who plucked the leaves from the branch. It was God who chopped the branch up. It is God who chose where to plant and
prepares the branch for the soil. It is
God who has me in His hand.
Bare, terrified, humbled and excited I trust Him. I will trust Him. I will abide with Him.
"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains
in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. John 15:5 (NIV)
