Biblical Figs

Figs and leaves grow together on new spring growth

The Biblical parables gain fresh perspective in the garden: Feel the strength of the grape vine; watch new clusters of fruit develop after a good pruning. Grow a fig tree and you will know what it means to hunger for the first ripe figs of summer.

Last week our Sunday school class studied Mark 11. I brought a sprig from a fig knowing the parable of Jesus withering the fig tree would spark discussion. Yes, I believe it is meant to be read as a parable, a parable demonstrated. A parable that I believe is better understood by examining other Biblical references to figs: Fig trees. Early figs. Withered figs. Fig leaves

Excerpts from Mark 11:13 – 25
Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs.

Then he said to the tree, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard him say it.

On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple area and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts.

And as he taught them, he said, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’ ”

In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots.

Peter remembered and said to Jesus, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!”

“Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. “I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.’”

Fig trees are deciduous, meaning they go dormant during winter. We know that this story takes place during the week leading up to Passover, springtime. At this time of year, in my garden, fig trees are beginning to push out fresh green shoots, from which that season’s leaves and fruit will mature.

Matthew 24:32
“Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near.”

This description is exactly what one would expect that time of year. You can’t see the green tips very well in my photo, but you can see the green on the new growth of leaves and figs, as they develop together on new growth.

Fig and Fig Tree Imagery In Scripture

Flourishing Fig Trees / Prosperity and Peace

Deuteronomy 8:8
…a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey…

2 Kings 18:31
“…Make peace with me and come out to me. Then every one of you will eat from his own vine and fig tree and drink water from his own cistern.”

Proverbs 27:18
He who tends a fig tree will eat its fruit…

Joel 2:22
Be not afraid, O wild animals, for the open pastures are becoming green. The trees are bearing their fruit; the fig tree and the vine yield their riches. Be glad, O people of Zion, rejoice in the LORD your God, for he has given you the autumn rains in righteousness. He sends you abundant showers, both autumn and spring rains, as before.

When you read the following verse, let it really sink in, this amazing image of peace and prosperity.

1Kings 4:25
During Solomon’s lifetime Judah and Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, lived in safety, each man under his own vine and fig tree.

These days we think of prosperity in terms of acquiring ever more stuff. But that is greed, not prosperity, and it is not likely to lead to peace. “…each man under his own vine and fig tree.” This means the land is not at war. The men are at home, living in the shade of their own fig tree, making wine from their own grapes. This is an amazing image of prosperity. Every man has his own fig tree and vineyard. He can feed his family, at home, in peace and safety. Oh, if only we could know such prosperity in our lifetime. But the rat-race runs too fast and relentlessly for this understanding of peace and prosperity.

Withered Fig Trees / Shriveled Figs

Imagery of withered fig trees and shriveled figs were a powerful symbol of retribution. No wonder the prophets used the symbol when urging the people to turn away from idolatry.

Hosea 2:12
“I will ruin her vines and her fig trees, which she said were her pay from her lovers…”

Amos 4:9
“Many times I struck your gardens and vineyards, I struck them with blight and mildew. Locusts devoured your fig and olive trees, yet you have not returned to me,” declares the LORD.

Jeremiah 8:13
“‘I will take away their harvest, declares the LORD. There will be no grapes on the vine. There will be no figs on the tree, and their leaves will wither. What I have given them will be taken from them.’”

Isaiah 34:4
All the stars of the heavens will be dissolved and the sky rolled up like a scroll; all the starry host will fall like withered leaves from the vine, like shriveled figs from the fig tree.

Revelation 6:13
…and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as late figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind.

Early Figs

One must grow a fig tree to truly appreciate the imagery of the early fig. Dried figs, preserved from last year’s harvest were an important part of the winter diet. (Read more about growing figs and their nutritional value.) Spring arrives and one sees the green shoots signaling the end of winter. Summer is right around the corner. New leaves and figs begin to form Figs do not have noticeable flowers, so the early figs are the first sign of the coming harvest. Figs are quite perishable, so they must either be eaten quickly or preserved/dried.

Now let me tell you, there is nothing to make the gardener’s entire body sing with gratitude like discovering the first ripe figs of summer. The fig is immediately popped into the mouth; the gardener savors the sweet, juicy goodness. This is a sign that the harvest will soon arrive.

Hosea 9:10
“When I found Israel, it was like finding grapes in the desert; when I saw your fathers, it was like seeing the early fruit on the fig tree…”

Isaiah 28:4
That fading flower, his glorious beauty, set on the head of a fertile valley, will be like a fig ripe before harvest—as soon as someone sees it and takes it in his hand, he swallows it.

Nahum 3:12
All your fortresses are like fig trees with their first ripe fruit; when they are shaken, the figs fall into the mouth of the eater.

Then, of course Jeremiah’s two baskets of figs.

Excerpts from Jeremiah 24:1-10
“…The LORD showed me two baskets of figs placed in front of the temple of the LORD. One basket had very good figs, like those that ripen early; the other basket had very poor figs, so bad they could not be eaten…”

“…This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Like these good figs, I regard as good the exiles from Judah, whom I sent away from this place to the land of the Babylonians. My eyes will watch over them for their good, and I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up and not tear them down; I will plant them and not uproot them. I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the LORD. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart. But like the poor figs, which are so bad they cannot be eaten,’ says the LORD, ‘so will I deal with Zedekiah king of Judah, his officials and the survivors from Jerusalem, whether they remain in this land or live in Egypt…’”

Some believe the following verses, Micah 7: 1-7 may be what Jesus was referencing when he speaks of being hungry for early figs. This seems plausible since the verses also speak of the betrayal of friends.

Micah 7:1-7
“What misery is mine! I am like one who gathers summer fruit at the gleaning of the vineyard; there is no cluster of grapes to eat, none of the early figs that I crave. The godly have been swept from the land; not one upright man remains. All men lie in wait to shed blood; each hunts his brother with a net. Both hands are skilled in doing evil; the ruler demands gifts, the judge accepts bribes, the powerful dictate what they desire— they all conspire together. The best of them is like a brier, the most upright worse than a thorn hedge. The day of your watchmen has come, the day God visits you. Now is the time of their confusion. Do not trust a neighbor; put no confidence in a friend. Even with her who lies in your embrace be careful of your words. For a son dishonors his father, a daughter rises up against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—a man’s enemies are the members of his own household. But as for me, I watch in hope for the LORD, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me.”

But we must also consider another fig tree parable.

Luke 13: 6 – 9
Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree, planted in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any. So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’
“ ‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’ ”

Fig Leaves

Let us not forget the first mention of the fig, mentioned after eating another fruit.

Genesis 3:3-7
…but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’ ”

“You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

Young Earth Creationists are fond of saying that if we do not accept the Creation story as literal fact, we undermine the rest of scripture. I disagree, adamantly disagree. The truth found in the creation story is a truth repeated continually throughout scripture. This truth not only makes the creation story relevant, but the necessary place to begin.

Whether you accept what is known about evolution, or believe that the Genesis account is literally true, please consider that the account of man’s fall into idolatry is critical to understanding every verse that follows.

Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

They no longer accepted, without question, the perfect good that is God. They had traded God’s perfect knowledge for knowledge filtered through the imperfect human brain, and chose to act accordingly. They decided that being naked before God was evil, so they made garments of fig leaves. And so we see idolatry manifested for the first time, humans chose to value self-proclaimed good above the perfect good of God. Over the generations our fig leaves have become fancier and more detailed, our forms of idolatry more varied. We became so firmly set upon a self-selected path that to this day we seem incapable of any other.

There are only two paths: Follow God. Follow self.

Now back to Mark 11, and the withering of the fig tree. Consider the verses again in relation to the other uses of fig imagery in scripture.

Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs.

Well, it wasn’t really the season for leaves either – although, fig trees will leaf and fruit early under certain conditions. The point is, if the tree had already formed summer leaves it was not unreasonable to expect a few early figs.

Then he said to the tree, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard him say it.

As I’ve already mentioned these verses do seem closely associated with Micah 7:1-7. However, I also see something of Hosea 2:12 and Jeremiah 8:13, quoted above.

With the verses that follow, we see that Jesus is protesting idolatry, the greed that is worshiped above God in the Temple. The worship of the law that left little room for compassion.

A fig tree adorned in green finery without any nutritious fruit, this is what he is telling us about the activity in the temple. Oh, if only we could learn to change our ways.

On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple area and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts.

And as he taught them, he said, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’ ”

In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots.

Again, in this imagery we see the repeated warnings of the prophets decrying idolatry.

Peter remembered and said to Jesus, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!”

Cursed? Would anyone say that the temple was cursed when Jesus overturned the tables and drove out the moneychangers? No, he was trying to point them to the better path.

“Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. “I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.’”

Trust God. We must not rely on our own understanding of good and evil. We must have faith in God’s perfect good, and take every request to Him. For all things are possible with God.

A few weeks ago I discovered a nursery that specializes in edible landscape plants. The selections were impressive and I purchased three varieties of fig in small 6-inch pots. During the first week at my house I didn’t have a chance to transplant into larger containers. When I finally got around to it, one fig plant had withered and looked dead.

I transplanted anyway and nipped back the tips. A week or so later I was rewarded by a couple of fresh green shoots. Now the plant is thriving and should produce figs next summer.

I can hardly wait to taste the first ripe fruit.

Six Nights On A Train – Snow

Six Nights On A Train

This morning I am officially sick of summer. So instead of getting out in this heat and pulling crabgrass from the pineapple patch, I’ll stay in air conditioned comfort and think about snow.

When I planned my cross-country train adventure last winter, I had no idea the severe cold that gripped the country through January was about to get a whole lot worse.

To travel anywhere from Florida on Amtrak one must first go up to DC or New York, and then transfer to one’s destination. This was fine with me. I looked forward to viewing areas of the country that I hadn’t seen before. To achieve some flexibility I purchased a two-week rail pass.

You can use a two-week pass for up to six legs of a journey. This was just perfect for my needs. Still, to be assured of a seat on a specific train, you need to plan the itinerary in advance. Having the ticket in hand turned out to be the only thing that saved me from getting stranded in DC during “Snowmageddon”.

My Itinerary

• The Silver Meteor – Orlando to DC
• The Cardinal – DC to Chicago
• The Southwest Chief – Chicago to Santa Fe/Lamy, to arrive for my mother’s birthday.
• On the return trip I wanted to stop off in Chicago to visit my Mother-in-law.
• Then take The Capitol Limited to DC, then head home to Florida.

At my sister's house in Santa Fe. Daisy in the snow.

Snow! Yes, let us think about snow on this hot August morning. There are many kinds of snow. I experienced several varieties while standing by the rails waiting to board the next train. In Virginia the snow was wet, heavy; Santa Fe, light, blustery. The flakes in Chicago blew relentlessly.

One thing I found intriguing about train travel was how effortlessly people banded together to form instant traveling parties. With plane travel it is rush to get into the security line, race to the plane, take a breath or a nap and just like that, trip over. On a train you have time for conversations. You can wander up to the snack car or viewing car and meet new people.

When I boarded in Orlando, my seatmate was Mary. She was headed home to Ohio with her daughter after vacationing in Florida. Mary and I struck up a conversation and it was like we had known each other our entire lives. We were too much the same sort, talking and laughing and quickly earning a reputation as the car troublemakers. Bigmouths, true enough. I don’t think we actually caused trouble. Anyway, we were having a grand ol time.

We were supposed to arrive in DC the following morning around 7:30. Some time during the night I woke to find that the train had stopped. Only darkness outside. We were sitting at a dead stop in the middle of nowhere.

We were moving again before dawn and when I went for coffee learned that around midnight a freight train stalled in front of us. We had been stuck sitting idle about four hours, and now would not arrive in DC until noon.

Plenty of ice. Mama's nursing home in Santa Fe

The conductor arranged for Mary and the other passengers headed for Ohio to get off in Richmond, VA, and then take a bus to Charlottesville, VA. This way they could still catch The Cardinal and arrive home on schedule. I showed the conductor that even though I was going to Chicago my ticket was also for The Cardinal. You know, part of my see-as-much-country-as-possible plan? The Cardinal goes through West Virginia and I had hopes of beautiful mountain vistas.

Six of us got off in Richmond: Mary, her daughter, me, a couple of other women and a gentleman who regaled us with stories of walking across the country. We became an instant traveling party, staying close together, watching each others stuff. Soon, we would part company, each going on to a ticketed destination. For those brief hours we were family. I think about Mary. We only knew one another for about 24 hours, and will probably never meet again. But we shared quite a bit during that brief acquaintance. Train Time is its own measure of time. One morning in the dinette car I listened to two older guys talking. Who could tell if they had known each other for decades or met ten minutes ago? Such is the nature of relationships on a train.

Snowy morning at my sister's house, Santa Fe

Anyway, I got my first real taste of winter while we waited to board The Cardinal in Charlottesville. Snow pelted us without mercy and the wind blew freezing cold. Once on the train I quickly gave up any thought of lovely mountain vistas. All was gray and frozen.

On my return trip to Florida I stopped off in Chicago to visit my mother-in-law. This worked out beautifully as I could catch the commuter train from Union Station right out to her suburb. Of course it also meant waiting for more trains in the snow. Ahh, sounds delightful right about now.

Even before I left Marci’s house we were hearing news reports about the massive storm aiming for Washington DC. I left Chicago Thursday afternoon, would arrive in DC Friday morning and leave for my return trip to Florida around 7:00 p.m. Friday night. This was cutting it close since the snow would begin falling after sunset Friday. They were predicting two feet of snow in DC, and soon they dubbed the storm ‘Snowmageddon’.

My frozen footprints. At my sister's house, Santa Fe

Thursday afternoon, back at Union Station in Chicago, they were already announcing train cancellations. The Cardinal would not go farther east than Charleston WV. Fortunately I was taking The Capitol Limited. We waited to see if our train was still scheduled. I wasn’t particularly worried about cancellation in Chicago since I could always go back out to Marci’s house and wait for conditions to improve. More than anything else at this point, I felt exhausted. The Santa Fe visit with my mother and sister had been wonderful, but hectic. I had reached that point in my journey when all I really wanted was to get back home to a hot shower and my own comfy bed.

The Capitol Limited made it out of Chicago on time, and was absolutely packed. I don’t recall much about that leg of the journey because soon after we left the station I positioned my travel pillow, settled under a travel blanket, found a book to listen to on my MP3 player, slipped on ear buds and lavender-scented sleep mask, and immediately fell asleep. When you travel prepared, it’s not at all difficult to get cozy, tune out your surroundings and sleep on a train. The seats recline and are actually fairly comfortable.

We arrived at DC’s Union Station around noon, Friday. The place was an absolute madhouse. I’m not kidding. It was like something I might have described in And The Dominoes Fall. That morning, while still on the train from Chicago, some of us discussed getting the earlier train leaving DC. If our train arrived on schedule, we thought this just might work. We should have known better. Union Station in DC was so packed when we arrived, we could barely squeeze toward the ticket counter. Long before we got that far we learned that both the earlier train and ours were completely sold out. With flights being canceled many travelers had scrambled for last minute train travel. Anything leaving DC that Friday afternoon was sold out.

Eventually our little group gathered, those of us who came in together from Chicago. There was a Cuban couple, she, noticeably pregnant. They were on their way to visit family in Miami. A young woman from Colorado with a small baby harnessed snug against her chest soon joined us. Her son, around five, quickly found new playmates and oblivious to the stress level among the adults, made a game of chasing pigeons. OK, I have no idea why there were pigeons in the train station. I never try to make sense of stuff that happens in DC. Anyway, the children were having the time of their lives. As we watched the crowds thin, and shops close up, we wondered if our train would really make it out before the snow fell too heavy.

I was regularly checking Amtrak updates on the Blackberry and Don monitored the storm back home. As the time for our departure passed without our train showing up, we became even more uncertain. Beyond our group Union Station was deserted. Ghost town, deserted. Shops shuttered. I think even the pigeons had moved on by then. Our train was arriving from New York. What if it had been unable to get through the snow? Being a Friday night those that could get out of DC had already done so. The people who worked at the station headed for home before conditions got too bad. As a veteran of many a hurricane I know how it is. I just wasn’t sure what would happen to our group of anxious travelers if stranded. So I sat there between a pregnant woman and another with a few-week-old baby snug to her chest and we waited.

Finally our train arrived, actually only about a half-hour delayed. Just seemed longer to us, knowing that “Snowmageddon” had already arrived. Similar to Union Station in Chicago you go through a tunnel to get to the trains. But even rushing through that tunnel we were pelted with snow and rushing forward on slippery ice. The train was absolutely coated in snow.

Our conductor was the same from my outbound trip from Florida two weeks earlier. And she remembered me. “Not you!” she greeted me. “You’re bad luck!” Sure, like I was in any way responsible for a freight train stalling in front of us, or for this terrible snow storm? Besides, I’d left my two black cats at home. I wanted to say something about women conductors maybe being bad luck, but thought it best to say nothing. We were boarded and headed south, away from the snow!

Saturday afternoon we arrived in Orlando right on schedule.

Much more to say about my six nights on a train, but that must wait for another post.

At The End Of A Very Long Day…

A lovely rainbow as we drove home from Orlando.

Photo taken with Blackberry.

I am very tired.

Not Self-Reliant, Grace Reliant

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5 NIV)

Over at Internet Monk we’re having interesting discussions about the Myth of Autonomy and The Death of Autonomy. I mention these posts because they may be of interest to readers of And The Dominoes Fall.

Through God’s Grace I learned that self-sufficiency is myth. This was one motivation for writing Dominoes. In the story a neighborhood comes to realize that survival requires them to put differences aside and work together. They cannot survive as a collection of self-reliant individuals. They must figure out how to become a community – a Grace-reliant community.

Many of us, particularly those of us with physical disabilities, desire to achieve the highest degree of self-reliance. We want to do it all ourselves, relying on no one for no thing. Of course this is impossible, and often means making matters more difficult merely to prove an irrelevant point. Nobody is completely self-sufficient. Our time is usually better spent helping others, rather than forcing a demonstration of ability, or obsessing over self.

Now don’t misunderstand me. Of course we should do for ourselves, and do so the best that we can. The trouble comes when we buy into the worldly lie that we need nothing other than self. We need no one and no thing but the strength of our own will.

As a child I was taught, “God helps those who help themselves”. If we’re not careful this leads straight to, “Rely on no one”. “Grow thicker skin.” “Pull yourself up by your own boot straps.” From there we are only a few short steps from condemning and judging those who dare to ask for help or admit weakness.

I didn’t realize how thoroughly I had bought into the lie of autonomy until one day after coming to Christ. Somebody said to me, “My boss says I need to toughen up, grow thicker skin.”

I cringed at the words. I’m not kidding. I felt revulsion. “No!” I protested. “This is all wrong. This is not the way we’re meant to live.”

If we have become a world filled with autonomous wannabes, worshiping self, trying to force thicker skin while proving that we need nothing from no one, well no wonder we’ve made such a colossal wreck of things.

Our skin should never be so thick that we cannot feel the trembling in the hand that reaches out for help.

Do our best? Yes, certainly. Do our best merely to demonstrate the greatness of self? That’s pretty hallow.

Relying on self means refusing God’s amazing gift of Grace – for what? To prove what? To become what?

Help ourselves, yes, ever Grace reliant.

If I take the initiative in my garden to till the garden, add the compost and sow the seed, I help myself. But there is no way I can claim much credit.

Lots of tiny organisms help by turning garden waste into compost. Other people make my garden tools and pack the seed. I have to rely elsewhere for sunlight and rain fall.

So God does help gardeners who help themselves. Even though some of my plants like dill, basil and coriander self seed, come back year after year without help from me, I still must pull the weeds to give them space to thrive.

What a mistake to claim my effort was all needed, refusing to acknowledge a gardener’s dependence on the totality of God’s Creation. What would my garden be without those compost-making organisms, insect pollinators, birds that happily snack on insect pests, skilled tool makers, raindrops and sun rays?

Being Grace-reliant is to acknowledge reliance on God, and all God’s magnificent Creation, people included. Yes, we do for ourselves and each other, always with profound gratitude to God.

Who Deserves Our Prayers?

Here in Florida the story of a Girl, 2 1/2, found dead in van at Delray Beach day care center has received much attention the past couple of days.

The story has become all too familiar. Somehow the child was overlooked in the daycare center van and left for up to six hours in the suffocating heat.

The Palm Beach Post article  concludes:

In the past 10 years in the U.S., about 450 youngsters locked in cars have died from hyperthermia. The average annual number of deaths is 37.

Every single case is a heart-wrenching tragedy. Each time this happens we question: “Why didn’t anybody notice?” Tragically, no one did notice 450 times over the past ten years in the US.

My attention was caught by a comment about this story on Facebook. Essentially, the commenter said, “Prayers for the family. They need to put the person who did this in a hot van for six hours.”

No, we need to pray for ALL involved.

Prayers for the family.
Prayers for her friends.
Prayers for the daycare center workers.
Prayers for the emergency personnel called to the scene.
Prayers for the person who failed to notice that a child was left in the van.

I cannot imagine how devastated the family must feel. Or her friends. Or the daycare center workers. Or the people called to the scene. …Or the person who left the child and must now live with that knowledge for a lifetime.

We must not pick and choose who is worthy of our prayers. This was a terrible thing and all involved need our prayers.