"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.’” Luke 13:6-9

Here we see, a fig tree master getting disappointed with no yield from his tree and in his anger wants it cut down. But the gardener pleads for the tree and buys some more time. Do you think the gardener then just left the tree to itself? No; he took special care to prune it, trim it, feed it and water it more often. He toiled hard to make it live. Let's pause right there.

Don't you see a similarity of Christ our Savior pleading our case to the Father God here? Yes, that is correct. Every time we anger Holy God who cannot look at sin, and whenever He is ready to punish us according to our sins, Jesus Christ comes in between asking God to give us another chance. Then He takes special care of us, giving us more and more opportunities to improve. Do we appreciate His efforts and try to make it or do we neglect it and remain the same without much fruits in our lives? Hope we improved!

Let's ponder over these thoughts as we kick off the weekend...