The holiday season is established as a time for giving, showing thanks, and spending quality time with our loved ones and distant family. Social media news feeds are flooded with posts relaying these messages, and with Christmas around the corner, radio stations flood the airways with songs praising the birth of the Messiah. Although I am for giving to others, showing thanks for all that I have, and praising the Lord, I am a little misconstrued knowing that these things that which we are to do everyday is honored by society quarterly, as a marketing strategy through man-made tradition.

As pastors and priests prepare sermons on the birth of Christ to suit the holiday, two weeks prior to Thanksgiving I decided to revisit the four gospels in my daily reading of the bible. (As of now I am three chapters into Luke). Everytime I read God’s word, I ask him to send forth the power of the Holy Spirit to intercede in my thoughts and provide me with understanding. One night while reading gospel of Mark, the Spirit moved. God spoke to me through the story about the fig tree. To read that story in its entirety visit the gospel of Mark, chapter 11, verses 12-14 & 20-25

In the long-short of it (the curse of the fig tree), Jesus and his disciples had just left Bethany at the Mount of Olives. In the distance Jesus spots a fig tree. He was hungry and decided to see if the tree had any fruit so that he could eat from it. As Jesus approached the tree, he saw that there was no fruit and he cursed it saying “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” As Jesus and his disciples went on the next morning they saw that the tree had withered from the root.

Upon reading this story many years previous I thought, “why did Jesus curse the tree when it says that ‘it was not the season for figs?'” At this point of my faith, I thought of myself as that fig tree. Just as the tree was not producing fruit because it “wasn’t the right season” for figs, I was not producing spiritual fruit, or at least much as I should have, because of the unforgiveness I had been harboring. It’s like with shackles tied to your legs you adjust how you walk to accompany them instead of searching for the key to unhook them so you can get along better.

Just like trees were made to provide shade, oxygen, and food plentiful for the body, we have been made to be the fruit of support and light in eachother’s lives. Holding on to unforgiveness holds us back from being the strong, mighty fruitbearers we are called to be, although reaching the level of forgiveness of those who wronged us is a process that doesn’t happen overnight. It is a full blown praying and healing process I hope to get to later.

After reading this story, I thought of the “seasons” I have a credited for my stance in unforgiveness, unproduction of fruit, and those that walked away from me hungry because I couldn’t feed them. It was an eye opener to me that if the Lord sees that if I am not producing fruit for those who require it, there is no need for me in His kingdom, and His kingdom is where I want to be.