To The Rescue

Our theme for Stk. Conf. is about rescuing the lost soul.  This past week I've been reading the parable of the olive tree and how it's being grafted here, grafted there, digged about, dunged and it being fretted over as it brought forth good fruit and wild fruit.  Although this is a prophecy about the house of Israel, I look outside at the harvest of our little garden and see its sorry condition, half full of weeds, and ponder on my personal efforts to rescue my own tree from personal weeds and wild fruit (most of our cucumbers look like squash, all twisted and turned, not straight).  The master of the vineyard did worry about his aging tree and considered just tossing it, but the servant came in and counselled with the master and had a plan to rescue it.  The plan involved hard work, cutting off  some parts, relocating some parts, which changed the look of the vineyard and the tree, but through it all, the tree did yield some good fruit.  No one improves without change.  The master and servant visited the tree(s) from time to time, whereas I've found the best fruit comes when visited daily.  And yet, even with the most careful daily weeding of a little here and a little there, I still wake up one morning to find a tall milkweed or thistle in my sticking up plain as day and I have to wonder how in the heck did I miss that!  I'm grateful that the master has not yet burned my vineyard that I might continue to graft, dig, and dung.  We all can use a friend, a job, and nurturing.