My Old Pear Tree

Back in 1988, shortly after we married, G and I decided we wanted to build a house. So we started looking for some land. One day, about a year later, when L and I were out for a walk, we noticed a "for sale" sign on a horse pasture we had walked by hundreds of times in our four years of living in our little town. So we checked into it straightaway. It was a little over an acre (85 feet wide and two blocks deep) and the sellers were asking $16,500 for it. We had looked at single lots for nearly $20,000 and this was a whole acre for less than that! We jumped on it. You know the story Jesus tells of the man who finds a treasure buried in a field and he goes out and sells all he has and buys the field? That was us. We spent all we had and a lot we didn't have to make the downpayment for the land. The sellers had offered it to the neighbor first, and the story goes that he said, "Why would I spend 16 thousand dollars for a horse pasture?" --Oh what happy words for us!! (I'm pretty sure he can answer his own question now--"So you don't have neighbors in your back yard!")

Long ago, this property and most of the adjoining properties were probably all part of the same donation land claim, and most were orchards; apple, pear and cherry trees still remain. But the trees are ancient and are in their sunset years. After we had owned this land for 12 years, about 7 years ago, the pear tree had cumulatively produced about 12 pears. Yup, one or two each year, if that. A friend of mine came out one spring and helped me prune the ancient apple and pear trees and that year I had a dozen pears. The following year I had double that. And every year since it has outdone itself. Of course, for the past 3 years it has been pruned by the horses, and we have picked as many pears as we could, often with a manure fork! And they have been much enjoyed and appreciated by both human and equine.

I am reminded of Jesus' talk to his disciples in John 15. (Thank you, Dr. Root, for requiring us to memorize this, decades ago, it is still with me!!) "I am the true vine and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, so that it will be even more fruitful." Either way, bearing fruit or not, we are gonna get shaped...either cut off completely or trimmed back! He continues, "You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. "

That pear tree was just a tree--barely a shade producer--but now that it bears fruit, it is treasured by me, and it's fruit enjoyed by my family and my horses. I want to be more than just a shade tree.