I remember a pair of trees I came across in my desert wandering. One tree was tall and broad of leaf - a date palm that went straight up over a hundred feet. It grew in sandy loam near an oasis - never struggling for water. The wind for the most part was blocked by a large rock outcropping nearby. The tree's canopy was full and lush, thick and green with an abundance of fronds. The palm produced fruit of course, abundantly, but almost sickeningly sweet.
The other tree was much smaller, a lemon tree barely a dozen feet tall. It grew in a rough patch of ground, too rocky to support much of anything. Water was scarce, and wind was almost constant. Some of the branches had died, and the few leaves were small and rough. The tree did provide fruit when it was able, but the lemons it produced were small and rather tart.
Eventually the winds of fortune changed, as the winds often do. The oasis ran dry, and the palm, lacking deep roots, went thirsty. The rock outcropping that had shielded the tree was brought low, and the wind blew hot and strong on the tree. It withered even more, and eventually died.
At the same time, the lemon tree was much amazed when its fortune changed. A small rivulet of water began running across the rocky ground underneath it's branches. It was able to leaf out fully, grew new branches, and even produced a full crop of the best lemons you had ever tasted - more than twice the size of a man's fist, juicy and full of flavor.
What kind of church are you attending, a date palm or a lemon ?
The winds of change are beginning to blow...
