Grafted Apples

As a child I loved being with my grandparents who owned a homestead adjacent to my family’s property. Neither grandparent worked outside the home, and both worked the land and raised livestock to sustain their large family. My grandmother made the largest and best cinnamon buns in the world (excuse the exaggeration!), and my grandfather was a master gardener (before Master Gardener became a certification).

During summer vacation from school I would follow my grandfather throughout his patch of land. He taught me so much about gardening and raising chickens from the old country in Italy. My love of gardening has still not diminished. I gave up on chickens since I always seemed to have a love-hate relationship with roosters.

His grafted apple tree was legendary. He took scions (cuttings) of different apple trees and grafted them all on one other tree. When the resultant apples ripened you could pick whichever ones you like. Back then, I thought it was a miracle. Now I know it is only science and knowhow.

Today with events as they are, the grafted apple tree got me thinking in a different direction. Perfect and different varieties of apples were all growing on the same root stock. Shouldn’t our lives as believers be the same? When we are grafted into Christ as a believer a Macintosh apple can grow next to a Granny Smith drawing the same sustenance through the tree roots. There doesn’t have to be an isolated tree for each ethnicity or culture. When grafted into the same root stock as believers we should appreciate and celebrate the variety and tastes of cultures which Christ came to save.

Robert Parlante

July 2016