There are the greater and more holy souls like those of the Saints. These souls are able to reach the fruit that is higher up in the tree.
We have a mulberry tree outside our home. It was the first plant we planted when we moved into the house because we all love eating mulberries. The trees grow very quickly and get very very big and during the Spring-time, they fill with fruit.
Now, we placed out mulberry tree in our front garden because we wanted to restrict out children accessing it in the backyard as mulberries are as messy as they are delicious…
But our children have now grown up a little and spend many hours perched in that tree picking the berries and eating them.
And I have been thinking about those mulberries over the last few days.
You see, the tree is full of fruit in various stages of development. Some of it is ripe and ready for eating, and others are ripening. Then there is fruit that is easy to reach on the lower branches, and fruit on the higher branches as well. Some fruit we will never be able to reach as we do not have a ladder that is long enough to stretch to those high branches.
The other day a couple of teenagers walking in our street asked to eat some of the fruit from the tree, and we immediately told them to eat as much as they wanted.
And I have been thinking about all these things, because the mulberries remind me of GRACE. You see, some Grace is given to the lesser souls like mine. We are the weak and ordinary souls who are fairly sinful but because we are loved by God, we are still provided with all the grace that we need to be satisfied.
And then there are the greater and more holy souls like those of the Saints. These souls are able to reach the fruit that is higher up in the tree. When they stretch up, they are able to profit from fruit that is untouched by anyone else. And the path to holiness requires them to use ladders (which for the Saints are their various acts of holiness) that allow them to reach those higher fruits.
And then there is the general attraction of Grace to others. Like those teenage boys who wanted to share the fruits. For Grace is attractive to others, even when they cannot understand what is attracting them to such Grace. And so, just as we shared our berries with the boys, so too should we share our Grace with others by our example of holiness.
And I have been thinking about this today as I have been thinking about mulberries, for it seems that God has provided me with everything I could possibly desire to achieve Heaven. All He is asking me to do is to reach over and pick the fruit. And it seems to me today that I spend far too much time sitting around complaining that this is impossible…
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.
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