I have dwarves on my lawn. Three of them, and they\u2019re all from the same family. One of them was born in Wright County, MN, while the other two (believe it or not) are grandchildren of the Duchess of Oldenburg. They came up on a truck from Missouri shortly after we moved in 10 years ago, and they\u2019ve been living in my yard ever since. Not to be confused with the average, lifeless garden gnome either, mine are alive & real and full of fruit. And, as of late, they\u2019re making me nervous. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Malus Pumila<\/em>\nfrom the Rosaceae<\/em> family, otherwise\nknown as \u201cHoneycrisp<\/em>\u201d, the three\napple trees in my backyard are of what\u2019s called a \u201cdwarf<\/em>\u201d variety. Topping out at 8-10 feet tall, these dwarves will\nnever grow to be as large as some of their relatives within the greater Rosaceae\nfamily, but they\u2019re perfectly suited to occupy a small yard like mine (which\nthey do, and have, for many years now). They may be small, but they\u2019ve\nweathered many storms and survived some of the coldest winters on record. They came\nin the mail no bigger than twigs, but they\u2019ve long since grown into strong\nyoung trees, eager to provide my family with applesauce and pie. These are no\nordinary dwarves. The Duchess of Oldenburg would be proud. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As strong as they are, and as proud as the Duchess may\nbe, these dwarf trees haven\u2019t yet reached their full potential. Over the\nduration of their life in my yard, I\u2019ve seen very little fruit. One of them just\nlast year yielded its first (and only) apple, while another had yet to produce\neven a single blossom. It almost goes without saying that I haven\u2019t been eating\na lot of pie in recent years. However, I hadn\u2019t necessarily been expecting<\/em> a whole lot of fruit from them\neither. I know that it takes time for a fruit tree to mature, and I\u2019ve been\nwilling to wait. My dwarves haven\u2019t disappointed me in the least. On the\ncontrary, I am delighted to have them in my yard\u2026apples or not. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In fact, at the start of prior seasons I remember\npinching blossoms off of my trees in order to give the branches time to grow &\nthicken. Apples get heavy, and producing fruit too soon can break the limbs and\nprove counterproductive. Dwarf trees are known for doing this, and I didn\u2019t\nwant that to happen with mine. Better to make sure the tree is strong enough to\nhandle the fruit it produces, rather than producing fruit as fast as possible to\nthe detriment of the tree. I\u2019m not hoping for apples this year only. I\u2019m after\nfruit that lasts season after season. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Well, this year has proven to be different from the\nrest. In mid-June all three trees were so filled with white apple blossoms, it\nlooked like it had snowed on them. Pinching them off would\u2019ve taken a month, so\nI figured that it was time to let my little dwarves do what they were always\nmeant to do: Make fruit<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It wasn\u2019t long before their blossoms gave way to tiny\ngreen apples. Those apples went from tiny to small, then from small to medium,\nand by mid-summer they had become substantial in both size and weight. The\nThomson\u2019s and<\/em> the Rosaceae\u2019s alike had\nbeen waiting a long time for this. It was exciting for all of us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s now late summer, and my trees have had a year like none before. They are liberally decorated with the finest fruit they have ever produced. The apples they hold are healthy & beautiful, absolutely delicious, and simply too many to count. And with the end of the growing season still several weeks away, they\u2019re bound to grow even larger, juicier, and, of course, heavier<\/em>. And that<\/em> is the cause of my recent concern. <\/p>\n\n\n\n “Producing fruit too soon can break the limbs”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n The fruit I\u2019ve so patiently waited for has now become the very thing that\u2019s making me nervous. The branches are still relatively thin, and bowing like wooden rainbows with the weight of the apples. Can they handle it? Will they break? Is it possible for a tree be ruined by its own fruit? <\/p>\n\n\n\n The three trees in my yard make me wonder if we sometimes underestimate the value and importance of a fruitless<\/em> season in our spiritual life. It\u2019s a good thing I barred them from bearing too much fruit in years past, they can hardly carry the weight of the apples they\u2019ve got now! Those dwarves, just like us, need to recognize spiritual maturity as being equally critical to the ongoing success of our ministry as the fruit we covet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We\u2019re so easily discouraged when the growth of our church stagnates for too long, or when our efforts to reach the lost fail to produce immediate results. But how can we be sure that periods of barrenness aren\u2019t by God\u2019s design? What if slow growth and scant success is God\u2019s way of keeping us from destroying ourselves? Just because we can\u2019t see any fruit doesn\u2019t mean that the tree has died. It\u2019s more likely an indication that its best years are still to come. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Conversely, even when a ministry seems to be producing volumes, it\u2019s still susceptible to breakage. Some churches have been known to do that, and I don\u2019t want it to happen to mine. I\u2019ve looked over the fence into neighboring orchards that were far more prolific than ours, and what I\u2019ve seen isn\u2019t always a pretty sight. I\u2019ve seen ministries that grew up so quickly and produced fruit so fast that the ministry itself crumbled under the weight of it. It came and went like a boom town, and all that\u2019s left to show for it now are a few scattered apple cores. Overnight success is sometimes the worst thing that could happen to an organization. Let\u2019s be careful what we wish for, and content with what we have. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Our church is what many would consider a \u201cdwarf\u201d variety. We\u2019re one of the small ones. We\u2019ll never get too big, and we don\u2019t grow very fast, but that doesn\u2019t mean we aren\u2019t capable of producing fruit. Indeed, producing fruit is what we are meant to do, and I believe that we already are in some measure. We\u2019re certainly not dead. However, if our sole focus is on the production of spiritual fruit, we might be in big trouble. If the branch itself doesn\u2019t have enough integrity, the weight of the fruit is going to destroy us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n “Is it possible for a tree to be ruined by its own fruit?”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Being a relatively young church, we might feel\ndiscouraged when we look back across our own branches and see so few apples\ndangling from them. It\u2019s easy to get frustrated at how long it can take for a\nministry to gain some traction. But I can assure you, God is not disappointed\nin what He\u2019s getting from our little fellowship. The last decade might feel\nlike a long time to us, but God\u2019s in no hurry for gobs of fruit. Not like we\nare anyway. If anybody\u2019s getting impatient, it\u2019s us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If God would\u2019ve allowed us to produce the all the fruit we\u2019ve ever wanted, especially early on, we\u2019d be broken to bits by now (it certainly wouldn’t have been the first time fruit got somebody in trouble with God). But He didn\u2019t<\/em> let that happen to us, with good reason. He\u2019s spent the last 10 years keeping us safe from ourselves and making us stronger in the meantime, preparing us for what\u2019s to come. And I believe that He is pleased with the growth He sees, and that our best years are still to come. We owe God our sincere thanks for pinching off our blossoms in times past. <\/p>\n\n\n\n With the startup of campus ministry upon us, and a new\nyear looming just ahead, the JFB community is entering into an exciting new\nseason of ministry with a lot of potential. We have high hopes. We see branches\nfull of blossoms, and like every year, we\u2019re starting to ask the same\nquestions: \u201cWill it work? Is this the\nyear? Will we finally bear a substantial amount of fruit?<\/em>\u201d But these are\nthe wrong questions to be asking. Rather than concerning ourselves with whether\nwe\u2019ll produce fruit or not, we ought to be concerned with whether we could\nhandle it if we did. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This might be<\/em> the year. But are we ready? Maybe we\u2019re ready, maybe we\u2019re not. Perhaps we\u2019ll enter into a season of great fruitfulness. But can we handle it? Maybe so, but it\u2019s equally possible that the Lord\u2019s decided we need another year to thicken. Either way we\u2019re in good hands. God knows exactly what we need to survive the cruelest of seasons and weather the worst of storms. We\u2019ve been through plenty of it already, and we\u2019re still alive. If we don\u2019t see fruit today, we will tomorrow\u2026Jesus promised, \u201cI appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n whether it’s a fruitful year for us or another barren one, progress is being made here. The future looks good for us, and the Lord is pleased with us and our dwarf church. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As far as the Rosaceae family is concerned, I might need to go and rescue them from doing permanent damage to themselves. It\u2019s been raining all day, and they\u2019re drooping like crazy. Looks like the Thomson’s will be having pie pretty soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I have dwarves on my lawn. Three of them, and they\u2019re all from the same family. One of them was born in Wright County, MN, while the other two (believe it or not) are grandchildren of the Duchess of Oldenburg. They came up on a truck from Missouri shortly after we moved in 10 years … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":5070,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pastors-notes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.jfbduluth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.jfbduluth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.jfbduluth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jfbduluth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jfbduluth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5069"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jfbduluth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5069\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jfbduluth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.jfbduluth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jfbduluth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jfbduluth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Slow\nGrowing<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Full\nof Potential<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Self-Destruction<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Small\nbut Strong<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Branches\nFull of Blossoms <\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Keep Going, Keep Growing<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n