If you now saw them with their leaves, could you then tell? I could tell a Maple tree from an Oak tree by their leaves, but there are a bunch of other trees I could not tell apart.
Now add the ‘fruit’ – or what the tree produces, and most of us will have a much better time of it… Does it have Acorns or Walnuts? Oranges or Apples?
Here’s the other thing – when I’m at the Apple Orchard with my family picking those sweet Golden Delicious apples - I’m looking for the tree that has the best looking apples, not the tree with the most full leaf coverage or straightest limbs… It’s all about the fruit; I’m not going to eat the leaves, or make a pie out of the branches!
“A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit. A tree is identified by its fruit. Figs are never gathered from thornbushes, and grapes are not picked from bramble bushes.” (Luke 6:43-44)
Jesus says that people are a lot like that apple tree… we shouldn’t focus on the outside only, we should look beyond a person’s limbs and into their hearts. That’s what God does, because that’s where the fruit originates!
“A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart.” (Luke 6:45)
Do you have good things coming from the treasury of your heart? Be a good tree, and bring your good fruit into the world – we need all we can get!
#LoveMatters