I Really Love Your Peaches!

".....wanna shake your tree." - Steve Miller Band.
"You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden." - God.
"You may especially eat from the two, 30 year old, peach trees in my backyard." - Me.

Notice that I didn't say freely?
It's gonna cost you.
A limb or two.
At least.
I strongly dislike pruning. I don't like to do it, and I don't like having it done.
I don't like doing it to my trees, I don't like having it done to me.
(I do not like green eggs and ham!) Sorry.
It started to get a little sing songy there for a minute.

My peach trees are some of the oldest in town that I am aware of.
They are the first to bloom faithfully every February, and the pink and red blossoms are spectacular!

This morning I was prompted by Joel Olsteen's daily devotional to grow where I'm planted.
Some days I feel like I am developing root rot, or just plain bore disease and have nothing left in me to Bloom!

I'd much rather just enjoy the blossoming and skip over the pruning part of the whole growing process.
But, I know that it's a necessity if I want to have big, tasty, juicy fruit.
Perhaps I can just buy a five stick yellow pack of gum for a quarter, and call it a day?

I have tons, and tons of peaches on my trees right now and I can't get to them quick enough.
Some are large and some are small...
Some they stay and some they fall...
(Oh gosh, I'm doing it again.)
Truly, they fall about 12 feet down and smash on the ground!

The butterflies are enjoying the nectar far more than I am enjoying the stench that reminds me of wiping down the bar after a bunch of drunk college girls, who kept spilling Fuzzy Navels all over the place, while flirting with the bartender.

Okay, I've spilled a few too, but now it's just stinking, rotten fruit laying on the ground.
Now, I have to maneuver around the fruited land mines while trying to get to the good stuff without stepping into sticky, squishy, peach pulp that gets stuck between my toes!

I think they call that toe jam?

I wouldn't be having as much of a problem with all of this if I had pruned better earlier.
Yeah, I plucked a few here and there.

'Cause I'm a picker, I'm a grinner...


There were cluster upon clusters of peaches and I know they are supposed to be about a hands width apart to form large, luscious fruit. They don't like overcrowding apparently anymore than I do.

But I just couldn't bare to do it. I am not the Master Gardener! Who am I to say which one to pluck?
I kept thinking that maybe they would all grow into mature fruit miraculously, some other way.
Maybe this would be the year that the branches would be strong enough to hold the heavily weighted limbs?

They needed to be cut away before the season began, and I knew it, I just didn't do it.

Jesus, in John 15, makes a distinction about two different types of pruning.
There is either a cutting back or a cutting off.
"He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn't produce fruit, and he prunes back the branches that do bear fruit so that they will produce even more."


Fruitful branches are cut back to promote growth. God sometimes disciplines us to strengthen our character and faith. But branches that don't bear fruit are cut off at the trunk not only because they are worthless but also because they can often infect the rest of the tree. (Tyndale's NLT New Living bible footnotes)

Interestingly, it goes onto explain that "fruit" is not limited to soul winning, but sometimes refers also to joy and love.

"I'm a lover..."

I need to stay attached to the life giving source, which is God in order to produce good fruit.
Juicy Fruit!
And sometimes, I have to allow the painful cutting back of certain things for new growth to continue.

"and I'm a sinner..."


As much as I wish I could just chop dead wood and limbs with one fell swoop of a trusty ax, most times I have to use a dull, blue hand saw that has very rusted blades. It's a painfully slow process.
Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth....it seems to take forever to cut back.

"You didn't choose me, I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name."

Mmmh? Lasting fruit?
As in....a long shelf life?
Cool! 'Cause I canned too!
Whatever I ask for?
Here goes then, "In Jesus' name, get me out of this Jam!"

"And lovey, dovey, lovey dovey, lovey dovey all the time...."
You just went made the "wrah wrah" noise didn't you?