exchanged living.

Limes, Avocados and the Coming Kingdom

“The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.” (Matthew 13:31-32)

We’ve been neck-deep in the agricultural teachings of Jesus this week, and this particular teaching kept replaying in my heart yesterday at Las Casitas, the all-girls orphanage where we were serving. The women on our team were teaching the older girls how to do professional manicures and pedicures; we gave them the equipment and Sandi and the crew taught them the basics. While that was happening, the rest of us were either doing crafts with the younger girls, playing futbol, or planting trees.

When I came here in April, one of the things Ashley, Justin and I discussed was the desire to put our hands to things that would extend beyond our one week visit. There are times where the mission work of an in-coming group can eclipse or even miss the immediate needs of the people in the area, and while some amount of that is inevitable, we wanted to participate in and put our efforts into things that would have more than a day or week’s impact.

We planted four lime trees, four avocado trees, two orange trees and a mango tree yesterday. The long term fruit of this effort is just that: fruit. The orphanage will be able to eat and sell fruit from these trees as long as the trees produce it. Care for trees in this area is easy due to the climate; we simply pray that these trees take root and begin to grow.

Fruit continues to carry that image of the kingdom within it as well. The Kingdom of God is here, and kingdom movement always has the future in mind. It’s never aimless, and it’s aim must always point towards rest for those who could not find it without its coming.

Or as Augustine put it,

“You have made us for Yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in You.”