In our backyard, we have 4 large, mature blueberry bushes. They were a house warming gift from a family member, and over the years they have brought our family many smiles as we've picked bucketfuls of large, juicy berries each July.
This past year, we noticed a new branch growing on one of the bushes. The bush was large and healthy, and we had every reason to believe it was on its way to another strong harvest. However, this new branch looked slightly different. It was also growing more rapidly than the rest, and it was quickly becoming one of the tallest branches on the entire bush.
My wife and I are not blueberry experts, so we asked a friend who works as a landscaper to take a look. He immediately identified the new branch as a “sucker.” He told us suckers are native to the plants they grow on, but these kinds of branches will not produce any fruit.
I looked up the term on a gardening website and found this definition:
“Sometimes, when we garden, it’s thrilling just watching things grow – but not all growth is beneficial. Suckers are a common example of fast new growth that take away energy from plants and trees. Allowing suckers to remain on your fruit tree or nut tree will only take away from the vegetative and fruiting wood you want to grow strong and healthy.” (Source).
We decided since the sucker branch looked pretty harmless, we would wait and see what happened. As you can imagine, the branch produced no berries this past summer, and we also saw dramatically less berries on the entire bush. More sucker branches appeared, and they have grown so thick they are fighting for superiority of the entire blueberry plant. We now have a significant problem…our blueberry bush will likely struggle to be fruitful this coming year as well.
The spiritual applications to our poor gardening are many…I was initially reminded of Jesus’s spiritual application of a similar principle in John 15:1-2:
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.”
Pushing this a little further, I see analogies in the sucker branches to other parts of my life:
Time with the Lord in my personal life can be crowded out by other good pursuits. Even if these things don’t qualify as sin, they drain healthy spiritual life from me. This is the point of Mary and Martha’s story in Luke 10:38-42. Mary made the better choice to sit at the feet of Jesus, rather than be overly busy.
God has placed people and responsibilities in my life, and it’s my job to watch over them. It’s very possible for “sucker branches” to develop in my heart, my family relationships, and the ministry I get to be part of. This principle is described as “little foxes that ruin the vineyards” in Song of Solomon 2:15, and Beth Moore explains it in more detail in this post.
If relationships in my life represent the blueberry bush, it’s possible for me to allow people to grab my attention and draw my heart away from God. This is Paul’s point in 1 Corinthians 15:33, where he says, “Bad company corrupts good morals.” While my heart should always be to love everyone around me, I must be careful and guard my heart against the potential negative impact others’ choices might have on me.
I am hopeful you and I can be better gardeners of our lives than I was of our blueberry bushes! Thanks for being part of this journey as worshipers with us.
Brent
bmills@b4church.org
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