THE PARABLE OF THE PEAR TREE Author Unknown
A father wanted to teach his four sons the lesson of not judging something or someone too quickly, and so he called his four sons together and said “I have a task for you. I want you, my eldest son to go out into our fields and take a look at the pear tree and come back and tell me what your evaluation is of its condition.”
So the eldest went out and saw the pear tree. But it was winter, and the son saw the tree on a harsh winter day and reported back and said to his father, “I see nothing of promise about the tree. It appears old and gnarled and has no blooms on it at all. I doubt it will survive the winter.”
Three months later the father sent the next eldest son out in the spring to evaluate the pear tree. The son came back saying “The tree is very beautiful, with white blooms, but it seems purely ornamental, it has no fruit, nor any sign of ever bearing any. I doubt it will be of much practical use to us.”
Three months later the father sent the third from the eldest son out in the summer. The son went out to see the tree and came back reporting: “the tree seems to be growing and doing well, and it is full of leaves, and I could see some fruit, so I picked one and tasted it, but it was bitter, not fit for human consumption. I doubt it will prove of much use to us.”
Finally three months later the father sent his youngest son out to see the tree once more. This time the tree was full of ripe beautiful golden and red pears. The son tried one and came back with the glowing report “Father we must come quickly for the harvest is upon the tree, and it is heavy laden and needs us to pick the pears for they are ripe and delicious now.”
The father called his four sons back together, and said, “You see each of you have observed well the condition of a the tree at a particular season of the year, but your judgment of the tree was only partial, and made too quickly based on what you saw on only the one occasion. See to it that you never judge human beings this way. Never evaluate them too quickly or on the basis of one encounter, for it is unfair and unwise. Indeed all living things should only be evaluated over the course of time and after repeated careful inspection, for who knows but the ugliest and most unproductive of living things might someday turn into the most beautiful and fruitful.”
“For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” – Matthew 7: 2 NIV
Finding Joy in the Journey,
Phyllis
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Phyllis Sather
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11 Comments
Phyllis
Thanks Naomi for featuring my post.
What Joy Is Mine
Phyllis…I am featuring this post over at WJIM this week. I’m excited to do so as well. Blessings.
What Joy Is Mine
Phyllis…what a great story. I’ve never read it before but it definitely gets the truth across. I’m going to share it with my children this week. Thank you for sharing it at WJIM this week. I’m always blessed when I visit.
Phyllis
Thanks for stopping by Wendy. I enjoyed your poem today.
Phyllis
Love that response, smack! Thanks for stopping by Lori.
Wendy @ E1A
Excellent post and lesson Phyllis.
Lori Laws
Smack, this hits me where I needed it! Have to love the way God talks to us through stories. I’ve read this story before, but it’s so timely for me to read it again tonight. God bless 🙂
Phyllis
You are so right Piper it is so natural. I’ve talked and prayed with my children dozens of times about comparing. It is a vicious cycle. Thanks for sharing.
Piper
Thank you for sharing this. Judging others seems to come so naturally to everyone. As is comparing myself to others. When I should be striving to be what God wants me to be instead of what I think the world wants of me. Just last week, I was told something disturbing about a friend of mine and it is really bothering me. I know that I just have to pray for her. My first thoughts were why? what was she thinking? I cannot believe she did what she did. God has shown me that I need to pray for her, and that only by His Grace am I not in her shoes. satan wants nothing more than to trip us up. he tripped her up, but he also tripped me up and I am guilty of judging her. Thanks again. I love this story! It will be one I hope to share with my children.
Phyllis
I’m glad I could provide your confirmation today. Enjoyed your article too. Good comparison.
Mindy @ New Equus - A New Creation
This is great Phyllis! I don’t think I’ve ever heard that story before but it is so true about how we judge things at a first glance! Your little photo about God changing our view is so what I wrote about today! 🙂 I love it when God gives me these little “confirmations”!