"Overburdened!" by Petra Pierre - Robertson

OVERBURDENED!

Psalm 57:2 "I cry out to God Most High, to God who fulfils his purpose for me."

I was hoping that branch in particular would survive. Several others had broken under the weight, but that limb in particular looked sturdy. We had pruned the tree the year before. Although it had borne good creamy avocados for years, it was getting old. Its limbs were weak and under attack from termites, yet it had continued to fulfil its purpose and do what it had been doing for years – giving good fruit even while parasites sucked on old branches, old branches sucked on the limbs and the limbs sucked on the trunk. But what of the sustenance of the source of their strength?

So we pruned the tree, severing the branches which sucked, as they were being sucked, yet bore little or no fruit. That season we got no fruit; we had pruned when the tree was flowering.

The tree flowered again!

The next season however, the tree flowered again. Plenty flowers. Plenty buds. Plenty fruit. Early in the season the weight of the small fruit broke branches. Every morning small fruit littered the ground even though the height of the season had not yet arrived. Other fruit however, remained, holding on to branches that grew from that resilient limb. They sucked on it and got fat; at its expense. The limb looked sturdy enough; as though it would last the season. Never mind three branches had broken before; that limb would definitely hold.

The limb broke under the weight

Then one morning, I looked out the window to a horrendous sight. The limb had broken under the weight. Large green healthy branches, that were dependant on the main limb for sustenance, fruits small, medium, large, some split in two, were all on the ground. The weight had been too much.

Casualities

Not only had the main limb crashed to the ground, it also took innocent casualties with it on its way down:

• It ripped away large sturdy promising limbs from a moringa tree
• It caused the demise of strong green branches that were attached to it along with young, half ripe, and full avocados
• It tore the branches off of a young starch mango tree
• It damaged the spine of a limb on the same young tree
• And countless fruits lay trapped beneath the foliage at ground zero.

The limb was strrong and heavy!

I tried to move the limb, to assess the damage and rescue fruits which still hung helplessly, unaware that their source of life was cut; that they were drawing on the last and it would dry up in less than two days. But the limb was too heavy. It was a large strong limb with the most and biggest fruits. A closer examination showed that it was the weight that ripped it from the main trunk; it was not a weak emaciated limb; it was a strong limb that was carrying a lot of burdens; the weight of others caused its premature demise.

Resilient amputee bearing fruit!

I looked up to see the ghastly skeletal frame of the tree looking sadly down; the holes where limbs once connected reminiscent of old broken dolls; used, abused and refused. Despite this it stood; a resilient amputee bearing fruit from its remaining limbs; going down fighting; going down carrying the weight of others; going down fulfilling its purpose - bearing fruit, regardless of the odds stacked up against it.

I spent hours picking through, sorting, organising and disposing of broken, damaged, destroyed vestiges as it looked morosely down at me. "I (cried) out to God Most High, to God who fulfils his purpose for me." Psalm 57:2

Dear God,

Our limbs may be strong, but the stresses of life can bear us down and break our resolve. Despite the tragedies, help us to continue bearing fruit, keep restoring our broken vessels, fulfill your purpose for us, through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,

Amen