Read: Luke 13:1–9
Bible in a Year: Job 17–19; Acts 10:1–23
“Sir,” the man replied, “leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it.” Luke 13:8
Last spring I decided to cut down the rose bush by our back door.
In the three years we’d lived in our home, it hadn’t produced many
flowers, and its ugly, fruitless branches were now creeping in all
directions.
But life got busy, and my gardening plan got delayed. It was just
as well—only a few weeks later that rose bush burst into bloom like I’d
never seen before. Hundreds of big white flowers, rich in perfume, hung
over the back door, flowed into our yard, and showered the ground with
beautiful petals.
My rose bush’s revival reminded me of
Jesus’s parable of the fig tree in Luke 13:6–9. In Israel, it was
customary to give fig trees three years to produce fruit. If they
didn’t, they were cut down so the soil could be better used. In Jesus’s
story, a gardener asks his boss to give one particular tree a fourth
year to produce. In context (vv. 1–5), the parable implies this: The
Israelites hadn’t lived as they should, and God could justly judge them.
But God is patient and had given extra time for them to turn to Him, be
forgiven, and bloom.
God wants all people to flourish and has given extra time so that
they can. Whether we are still journeying toward faith or are praying
for unbelieving family and friends, His patience is good news for all of
us.
I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. (John 15:5).
God has given the world extra time to respond to His offer of forgiveness.
© 2017 Our Daily Bread Ministries
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