My Fig Tree

A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. Luke 13. 1 - 9

My fig tree is one of the first harbingers of Winter and of Spring in my garden. As soon as the days hint towards being a little shorter, she begins to shed leaves, and by the time it is dark at 5 pm, she is leafless! Likewise, as soon as the days start to get a bit longer, she bears buds, then leaves and ultimately figs! Her crop of figs is abundant, however, I rarely get a ripe one off her branches. You see, this tree provides for the birds and the squirrels, and they know exactly when the figs are ripe and ready to eat. I have tried hanging cd's off her branches and other little tricks to deter the critters but to no avail.

In the gospel today, Jesus uses a barren fig tree as a symbol of someone who just takes up space in the kingdom, never producing and only wasting space and time. If we are like that fig tree, then we could learn from this lesson that a good dose of "figurative" fertilizer might be helpful. However, like my tree, perhaps the fruit we bear provides sustenance for something or someone out of the ordinary, something unseen or unrecognized.

My tree looks fruitless most times during its growing season, but she constantly provides for the birds and squirrels in her corner of Creation. Perhaps another lesson we might take from this Gospel is that the fruit we bear is not always visible, but instead it is a gift to the "least of these."