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The New Tree in the Gutter
It’s back! Remember when I wrote the little modern parable about the “Little Tree In the Gutter?” Well, it’s back. I walked out to my car a couple of weeks ago and looked up to see a new, healthy-looking little tree in the gutter. It impressed me. I was glad to see the little fellow. He looked good. A lot like the one before.
I’m not sure just how that happened or how long it took, but I am sure of one thing: there’s a new tree in that gutter. And I know another thing; some way or the other, there’s a seed involved. I don’t know where it came from, if it came from that original tree, or whether a bird brought it in some way, but one thing is certain: there was a seed planted. Things don’t come up that have not been planted.
Sowing and reaping is a fact of life. It’s part of God’s eternal plan. When I was young, I watched often as the West Texas farmers planted the cotton seed in the sandy soil. Given enough rain, the plant would come up and before long little blooms would appear. Then before you knew it, the blooms turned to squares which, given a little time, become round hard green balls. More time and the balls began to crack open to expose little bolls of fluffy bright white cotton. It was at once a fascinating and exciting thing to watch how a single seed was planted and in a short time became a pretty little green bush filled with cotton bolls, each one of them filled with a number of new seeds. It’s called reproduction.
Sowing and reaping is part of the human drama, too. Reproduction is what marriage is all about. A man plants. A woman conceives. A child is born. And, just as is the case with the cotton seed, so it is with human reproduction–a new child brings with it the possibility of another new seed-producing person. As you can readily see, a same-sex marriage is incapable of producing a new plant, for it offers neither a place for the seed to be planted or the seed to plant.
Sowing and reaping--reproduction, if you please–is not only a fact of life in the physical world, but an assurance in the spiritual world as well.
“Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting (Galatians 6:7-8). Every person is sowing something, be it good or evil.
If you are not faithful to Him, you are planting seed that will produce after its own kind. You can’t plan unfaithfulness and reap faithfulness. And you will most certainly reap what you have sown.
If you are not faithful to your commitment to Jesus, you are sowing unsatisfactory seed and you are bound to reap the same evil you have sown.
No only is that the case, but no matter if you sow to the spirit or sow to the flesh, you can’t, by the very nature of the reproduction process, reap just a little. You will inevitably reap more than you sow. It’s axiomatic, self-evident.
That means you can’t sow a little ungodliness and reap even the small portion you have sown. It grows. It gets bigger. Ungodliness gets bigger and bigger, stronger and stronger. And that fact is indisputable–there are no exceptions.
And think about the positive side of that. If you sow good seed–righteousness, if you please– you will reap more righteousness than what you planted. How great is that? Spiritual seed sown will bring about a rich spiritual harvest. The scripture affirms that you will eventually reap life everlasting. Talk about a successful endeavor. Could there be a better crop?
I am proud of that little bush in the gutter. It proved to me once again how important it is not to give up, no matter the weather, no matter the opposition. And no matter the location, you can grow, you can be an example of stalwartness. And you can bloom wherever you are!
Thanks again, little bush. I wish I knew if you’re the result of the seed of the original bush, or a new kind of plant. But, no matter. You just keep on growing, you hear? And perhaps one day you’ll end up in my office just like your kinsman did.
