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Among the orange trees lining the path where I jog, one struggling tree stands out. It is barren of leaves and presumed dead, yet loaded with unexpected fruit. I couldn’t resist tasting a few of its oranges; some were sweet but most were dry and unappealing. The tree’s roots are still alive, but without fresh leaves to convert light into nourishment the roots will soon wither and the tree will die. Is there hope for the tree? That depends on whether anyone cares enough to see the tree for its potential.
Sometimes our lives mirror the tree. Just as a tree can become top-heavy with deadwood stressing its core, so we can become overburdened with pride, success or busy work, which chokes our growth. Even church congregations are not immune to occasional top-heavy burdens. Without wise pruning to balance worthy goals against available resources, individuals and ward families can suffer from the overburden of activity at the expense of core purpose.
In the process of painful but necessary pruning, others may give up on us or wrongly judge us as worthless or past our prime. Worse, we may give up on ourselves. Despite this, our roots are yet alive with potential.
In the Book of Mormon we read an allegory of the tame and wild olive trees. An aging mother tree responded to care, but “the main top thereof began to perish” (Jacob 5:6). Wild branches were grafted into the tame mother tree, and its deadwood pruned and burned. Tame branches were hidden by grafting them into trees in the far reaches of the vineyard (5:14). Eventually, the Lord of the vineyard and his servants preserved the vineyard and its sweet fruit through a series of transplants, careful pruning and loving labor. The allegory speaks to the founding, aging and scattering of Israel (verses 3-13); the days of the early Christian saints (verses 15-28); the Great Apostasy (verses 29-49); the Restoration (verses 51-73); the Millennium (verses 74-76), and the end of the world (verse 77). On an individual and congregational level, the labor in the vineyard is a symbol of rescue. The Lord and his servants balanced the branches and roots of the trees by keeping “the root and the top thereof equal according to the strength thereof” (Jacob 5:73).
The olive-tree allegory is also a symbol of nurturing those in spiritual, physical or emotional decline; the need for balance in our personal lives and ward families; the infusion of vitality from missionary labors and new members, and the wisdom to judge the tree or the soul by its root, not its over-stressed branches or anemic fruit.
My neighborhood orange tree and the vineyard allegory give me pause to consider my own physical and spiritual health in the New Year. Am I taking care of the precious gift of spirit and body; my tree? Are my branches, or labors, in balance with my core values? Am I overburdening my life with activities that stress my roots or produce bitter fruit? Do I seek the Lord to restore my balance? Am I striving to labor in God’s vineyard by nurturing and restoring others to health?
This year and in every season we can see people for their true potential. We can accept the necessary correction of pruning in balance with our core by strengthening our root-character. We can also look beyond people’s outward appearance–their barren-branch struggles–and avoid judging them as valueless. We can trust in the worth of souls, even when others have given up. Who among us has never needed rescue? May we be willing not only to accept rescue for ourselves but to help others as “trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified” (Isaiah 61:3).
