Merry
Christmas! Today I write to you about
manure.
What does
manure have to do with Christmas? To
start with, Jesus was born in a stable, which isn’t exactly the most sterile of
environments. Despite the overly idealized
versions of our current Nativity scenes, Jesus’ birth was certainly not a
pleasantly aromatic experience. However,
I’ve touched on that already in the past.
Today I’d like to concentrate on a very interesting take I recently
heard regarding the Parable of the Barren Fig Tree.
Luke 13:6-9
(taken from usccb.org online bible):
And he told
them this parable: “There once was a person who had a fig tree planted in his
orchard, and when he came in search of fruit on it but found none, he said to
the gardener, ‘For three years now I have come in search of fruit on this fig
tree but have found none. Cut it
down. Why should it exhaust the soil?’
He said to
him in reply, ‘Sir, leave it for this year also, and I shall cultivate the
ground around it and fertilize it; it may bear fruit in the future. If not you
can cut it down.’”
We are all
familiar with this story about how the gardener would add tender loving care to
the fig tree for a year to try to revive it and nurture it along. At least that was the thought that had gone
through my head whenever I hear the parable.
I imagined the gardener kneeling down beside the tree and gingerly
patting up dirt around its base with his bare hands. I imagined him spreading fertilizer around
the soil, and whenever I did, in my mind it somehow looked like the bleached
white granules you pour out of a Miracle-Gro bag. I’ll admit I probably even envisioned him
wrapping his blanket around the trunk, and having the fig tree spring back to
life, just like Linus did in “A Charlie Brown Christmas.”
I was reminded that this tree was in an orchard, however, and was not a potted house plant. Most likely, when the gardener was going to “cultivate the ground around it”, he was probably going to beat it up pretty badly. He would dig at it with a shovel, hack at it with a hoe, and basically disrupt everything around it. He would take the area closest to the tree, everything that looked level and smooth, and turn it over while breaking it apart.
What about
the fertilizer? Monsanto wasn’t in
business in the 1st Century.
Fertilizer meant manure. It could
have possibly been decomposing garbage.
In some ancient civilizations, even salt was used. After destroying all of the smoothness around
the tree, salt may have been thrown into the wounded area, and then compost and
manure piled on top. All of this was with
the intention of pushing the tree to be stronger, and produce fruit. To do what it was placed on this earth to do.
Have you had
the calm around you disrupted this past year?
Does everything close to you seem in upheaval? Do you feel like everything has been getting
dumped on you? Are you completely
surrounded by the most horrible, disgusting things, and you can’t even see the
positive because of the stench of negative that seems to constantly be upon
you?
Keep the
faith, and remain strong! The Good
Gardener has saved you! He did not allow
you to be cut down, and instead has helped you to maintain throughout all of
this.
My year has
been a tough one. At many times I felt
as though I might be close to going down.
I don’t believe it was an axe that was hacking at my base, however. I have faith that it was a shovel. I have faith that the turmoil will lead to better
in the future. I realize that there may
be more still to endure before that future arrives. In fact I know it. We have a difficult surgery already scheduled
for one of our children in January. The
manure is about to be dumped upon us.
With faith, we will make it through.
I write this to convince myself, as much as anyone else, that we will be
strengthened through our difficulties. I
pray that I emerge, able to produce the fruit that God has intended. I pray that you emerge with strength from
whatever is cultivating you.
Have a
WONDERFUL AND BLESSED CHRISTMAS with your families and loved ones. Please say a prayer for my family in the New
Year.
Written by:
Matt Buehrig
Inspired by:
Anna, Greg, and all of my family who has endured medical crisis this year
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