Gardening parable

Yesterday I was watering our small vegetable patch and one of my kids (can't remember which one) said; 'Mom, you are watering the weeds as well as the veggies.' Then I said; 'Yes and then when the weeds are big enough to grab I will pull them out.'

As I was walking away to fill up the jug again what had just been said really struck me. In Matthew 5:45 it says: "That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." and in Jacob 5 we have the allegory of the olive tree; click here to read the whole allegory.

The part that I was thinking about though is in verses 65 and 66; "65 And as they begin to grow ye shall clear away the branches which bring forth bitter fruit, according to the strength of the good and the size thereof; and ye shall not clear away the bad thereof all at once, lest the roots thereof should be too strong for the graft, and the graft thereof shall perish, and I lose the trees of my vineyard.

66 For it grieveth me that I should lose the trees of my vineyard; wherefore ye shall clear away the bad according as the good shall grow, that the root and the top may be equal in strength, until the good shall overcome the bad, and the bad be hewn down and cast into the fire, that they cumber not the ground of my vineyard; and thus will I sweep away the bad out of my vineyard."

So the bad fruit was benefiting from the dung, the pruning and the nourishing, however it remained bitter in spite of that, and in the end was plucked off and cast into the fire.

Lots to think about...