Here’s the thing about fruit trees.
Just because you have an orange tree doesn’t mean you will harvest oranges from that tree.
See, you can choose any citrus tree and graft any other citrus tree on it and harvest what you’ve grafted.
An orange tree that gives you lemons … hmm.
Now, my point, do you wonder how you could have the family you have? After all, you are an orange, sweet and flavorful, and your relatives … lemony tart and near useless.
Or maybe you’re the apple tree, and all that falls from your family tree is crabapples. Yech! Did someone graft crabapples onto my tree?
Here’s another thing about fruit trees: only similar-type fruit trees can be grafted to one another, so if you’re getting crabapples from your apple tree, yes, you are still related.
And that lemon you call your sister … well, she’s still your sister. God says it doesn’t matter. You must treat her with respect.
Mark 7:10 says:
“Honor your father and your mother.”
We can extend this to say “… and your brother and your sister … and anyone else who falls from your tree.”
The bigger point here is that God expects us to emulate him, or as we like to think of it in the modern church, to model our lives on the example of Jesus as revealed in the Bible.
Be kind … respectful … generous … forgiving … are you seeing this? An apple tree doesn’t drop the crabapples from its branches and exclaim, “Yech! A crabapple!” You might even have cherries, plums, and peaches all falling from the same tree! Can you exclude one as not belonging? Nah, we’re family, and God expects us to treat each other with honor.
Especially your father and your mother. Treat them especially well. They deserve your respect.
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