"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...