Testimonies

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Last year, I shared with you all a testimony concerning a lemon tree that I grew from a seed, that I was overly attached to, that had been destroyed after seven years of my admiration and care. Also, I shared with you all the fact that my great niece and nephew and I had sprouted some orange seeds. Some of you might remember those orange sprouts and I thought you might like to have an update on our trees. We started out with a total of seven. One of the little sprouts did not survive being transplanted.

When I moved into my new home in February, I brought six little tree sprouts with me. Four of them were fairly healthy. Two of them looked pretty weak. One of those two did not survive the move. I started this summer out with five little orange trees, one of which seemed dwarfed. Four of those trees survived the severe summer drought. I have babied those four trees, sprinkling them in the mornings and keeping them out in the light, but shaded from the very hot afternoon sun that we have here in north Texas.

One day last week, I was privy to see someone I’ve not seen in a very long time, someone whom I’d, for an even longer time, held a grudge against. He complimented me on the little orange trees. What do you think I felt moved to do? But of course, I gave him one of the four trees.

Sometimes, when things get terribly frustrating for me and I can’t seem to find a lot to rejoice over, I look back over the last couple of decades and stand amazed. Though the promises I have found in the Word for my life have not, on a regular basis, been instantaneous, they have been occurring slowly over periods of time. It hasn’t been all that long ago that I was crying to the Lord, no rather, I was weeping to the Lord concerning my home and my son. But today, my son and I live in a decent home and we are both quite content with our living arrangements.

The little orange trees seem to be still and unchanging. They seem not to be growing at all. But growing they are. I look at me sometimes, and I seem to not be growing much either. I had to move one of the trees a few more inches away from the side of the house as one of its branches had grown up against the wall over the summer. The tallest one is only about a foot and a half tall ... if that tall.

I know that citrus trees that are less than two feet tall after over a year’s growth don’t sound like much to people from Florida or California. But for a person to even be able to grow orange trees in Texas at all, over a foot tall is saying a lot! And for God to have done something with someone of my background, where I am today in the Lord is saying a lot!

Prayerfully, those three little trees I have left are going to bear much fruit someday. At the rate they’re growing, that “someday” could still be quite a few seasons away. But I’m not going to give up on them. I’ll continue to baby them, just like I’ll continue to be patient, knowing that good things happen for those who wait patiently on the Lord and continue to rejoice in His promises, even when they can’t yet see the manifestation of those promises.

James 5:7-8 Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.

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