“Lemon Tree’ – the folk song written by Will Holt in the ‘50’s:
Lemon tree very pretty
And the lemon flower is sweet
But the fruit of the poor lemon
Is impossible to eat.
How often does this describe the people we meet in and around church congregations?
Whilst they look the best in their Sunday finery – the fruit …! Well the fruit leaves much to be desired. The question is; do we discard them from the Christian garden? Pull them out by their roots and chuck them on the compost heap to be processed into a more useful substance?
Sometimes we fail to see the value of this ‘impossible to eat’ fruit. Because, it is not impossible to eat – we just need to realise how to eat it.
A slice in our Gin & Tonic; a fine zest in the carrot cake; the juice sprinkled over our fish; a tenderiser for our steak; and let us not forget, lemonade on a hot summer’s day.
Our issue is not the bitter fruit, but rather finding out how to use its attributes to the best advantage.
Christ went looking for the bitter fruit to bring it back into the garden’s basket of produce, knowing, that if we discovered what He knew – ‘All things can be used for good’ – know your recipes and what you need to really raise the bar – perhaps it will be a lemon!
Gardening with God teaches us so many things!
