The Littlest Apple Tree - Part 5

With great excitement, it began to sway joyfully and to laugh with excitement. “Whoa, little tree!” said the farmer. “Don’t shake too much; for all of your apples will fall off sooner than I can put then in my basket!” The farmer laid down his large picking basket and stepped back to survey his masterpiece. “Yes indeed. Just as I had hoped for you, my precious little tree. You are truly one of the beautiful trees in my entire orchard; and this year, you have produced for me the finest apples of all of my other apple trees. Yes, truly, truly the most beautiful of all!” With that, the farmer began to pluck the fresh, ripe fruit from the trees branches. As he picked, morning dew trickled gently down from the trees upper leaves onto the farmer, making the ground slightly wet. The tree had tried to hold back its tears of joy; but with each pluck of another piece of its creation, another tear drop fell and made its was down to the ground, leaf by leaf.

Everything was now brilliantly clear to the once little apple tree. The farmer had not lovingly planted it years before with doubts that it would never produce anything; but instead, he had carefully planned out year to year how he would nurture it so that it could grow and transform from its little form, now into a mature tree. While the apple tree had been so concerned with what the farmer was doing to itself, it had lost sight of who the farmer was and how he had strategically and wisely planned out how to care for the little tree until it could create its own harvest.

Many years later, after several wonderful year of harvests, it was odd to the now grown apple tree that the shears that had once caused it so much pain, it now welcomed openly; for it knew that with each clip and each removal of the weeds below, it would produce even more fruit for the loving farmer in the harvest yet to come. The now magnificent apple tree, once lonely and despairing, had become the triumph over the entire orchard. With the loving care of the farmer, it continued to become stronger and better able to create beautiful apples year after year. Whenever the farmer came to visit the little tree, it no longer allowed its branches to fall with shame as it once had. Now, it would shoot its top branches to the expanse of sky and proclaim, “Take me farmer. Cut, trim and pluck anything away from me that will keep me from the harvest that you so desire. I don’t want anything to entangle me from being all that I can be for your pleasure.” With that, the farmer smiled and said, “Well done, my dear little apple tree. You have become exactly what I hoped that you would be, creating delicious apples year after year for my harvest. Well done, little one, well done.”