Day Twenty-Eight - April 28, 2020
Today I awoke to my alarm clock blaring and I couldn’t for the life of me wake up… poor little Nellie didn’t get to sleep over with me at Nanny’s - so you can imagine her excitement when she drove over with Papa to pick me up for our beautiful morning walk!
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I’ve started today’s journal writing about four different times… it just seems like it’s not going to be one of those days when the words flow effortlessly. My words seem to be jammed up like logs in a river after a spring thaw. The water’s rushing, the logs are flowing… but down river - they’re getting jammed up… For that reason, it’s probably best just to jump straight in!
My study time today was from the book of James and I Peter chapter 1 - somehow I find myself absolutely stuck on the topics of suffering, joy, and grief... Everywhere I turn, it jumps off the pages of life into my world and I’m forced to stop and consider.
Today, as I chopped onions and garlic for our supper, I was knee-deep listening to a message found in I Peter 1… After the speaker finished reading the passage - he began to expound on the topic of suffering. He made one slight reference to the prophet, Amos who was a sycomore fig-tree bruiser. A what?!? I thought I misunderstood what he referenced. (And sycomore here is spelled correctly - I had to look up this species.)
It took quite a bit of digging through sources other than wikipedia to find some resources to shed light on this practice. Back in the early 1900’s, J. Galil published a 13 page article entitled, “An Ancient Technique for Ripening Sycomore Fruit in East-Mediterranean Countries.” Published by the Dept of Botany, Tel-Aviv University.
Here are a few direct quotes from his article:
“They are tall trees with a broad crown and spreading branches, standing out conspicuously from other plants.”
“The flowers are pollinated regularly by the small chalcidoid wasp, Mayr.
“Sycomore trees growing in the Near East are outside the spontaneous area of the plant and depend on man for their propagation.”
“In ancient Israel, sycomore was eaten mostly by the poor who could not afford the more expensive fruits.”
“It cannot ripen unless it is scraped, but they scrape it with iron claws; the fruit [that is] scraped ripens in four days.
“It is now well-known that in many cases wounding of the fruit has a marked effect on its rate of respiration and ethylene production and consequently on its ripening.”
Essentially, you have sycomore figs growing on the tree. In and of themselves, they will not ripen. The sycomore fig-tree bruiser comes along with an incredibly sharp tool shaped like a circular knife and smacks the side of the fruit to crack it open.
Within four days, that fruit has ripened and is ready to be harvested. This practice of bruising the fruit can sometimes enable a farmer to produce six more times the amount of crop.
None of us enjoys trouble… trials. Suffering. No one. And what actually makes a trouble a trouble? This question came up this past week during a discussion with my kids. Troubles are inevitable. None of us are exempt for any reason. Once a perfect man, our Lord, walked the face of this earth - and it is said - he was a man of sorrows - acquainted with grief. His perfection did not preclude him from suffering.
Troubles point out to us areas in which we need wisdom. They force us to discover where we are lacking - that we may grow and develop.
I think about when I was teaching my kids numbers and math when they were little… Sometimes those days of homework felt like extreme agony for both the kiddo and for me. But if I had left them in their misery at 1,2,3… they would never be able to conquer the algebra and trig they are currently studying. Ask them now to subtract two-digit numbers and it is a breeze!
None of us seek out trouble - but some of us do ask God to develop us. It seems that suffering is the means by which we grow and develop. Like training at a gym or preparing for a marathon…
This becoming… this developing is painful and at times excruciating. I saw a picture of the sycamore fig-tree bruiser’s circular knife… He smacks the fig that it might produce. He breaks the hardened shell so that ethylene gas can be released… the fig breathes (respirates) and thereby is able to ripen.
And repeated - this process of bruising produces a greater harvest…
Even as I write this tonight, I find myself in the midst of a type of trial that is not going to pass anytime soon. It’s nothing unique to humanity - but it’s a trial I must endure.
I promise you, though, that I am learning in this season to become… To grow. To develop. Ripen. Produce. Without this trial, I would be lacking…
Suffering isn’t something we stuff down, become religiously stoic, or carelessly brush to the side. It is a precious gift. It is the key to deep growth and must be handled with great care to match its precious value.
Isaiah 53:5
“But He was bruised for our transgressions… He was crushed for our iniquities… The punishment for our PEACE was on Him… And by His wounds - we are HEALED.”
And so we carry on… hands outstretched looking for the sycamore fig-tree bruiser. He is full of grace and mercy and gives wisdom to all without finding fault.
