Bradford Pears

by John Thomas

Have you ever noticed the beauty of a Bradford pear tree? It had beautiful blooms, thick, dense leaves, and almost perfect shape. It is a very desirable tree to most people. Those of us who do not desire them have spent time with them, cleaning them up! You see, the life span of a Bradford pear tree is about 15 years. After that, it breaks, splits, and falls to pieces. If you cut it down to the ground, what grows back is a thorn laden bush! Why? Because it is a pear tree grafted with a rose bush. That is why it flowers so beautifully. That is also what gives it the brittleness. What makes the things around us seem so beautiful and perfect, may have underlying things that destroy them down the road! Like all the "perfect" families with the "perfect" lives and all of life's beautiful toys... some are destroyed because of the things they graft into their lives to make it "look" more beautiful! What starts off as a sticker bush usually returns as sticker bush. Those things we implement into our lives will return to strengthen us or bite us, depending on whether they are good or bad things.
Many people might say, it was beautiful or fun while it lasted, but compared to eternity, it will be a bad decision! Life is short. Don't trade the value of your etemallife for the pleasure of sin that just lasts for a short while. You need deep roots in God's word to sustain your life. Drink from the rivers of water of life. Enrich the soil in which you grow. Prune the bad, excessive, and rotten limbs out of your life so there is room for the healthy parts to grow! And never graft yourself to anything that promises to make you "look" better, only surround yourself with things that make you better! This world will end. Where will you "grow"?
Moses chose this: Hebrews 11:24-25 "By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin."

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