The distinct individuality and charm of the olive orchard is like the one among Christians. There are different types of Christians. Some are the Methodist type, some are the Baptist type, Lutheran etc. They are formed according to their rules, just like the rows of the beautiful olive trees we see in the small villages and not in the beautiful olive orchards in Greece.
Getting out of securing uniformity is going to be better for the church of God and Christians. Christians should not imitate others, should only be themselves and also be humbled.
Although olive trees are not the same, still you can not confuse them with any other trees. Christians are not the same with each other, but all should be like Christ. The beauty of the olive tree and the beauty of the Christian is very much alike, because both are full of life.
Some times when you look at the olive tree, you know that tree had hard times. Its trunk is split up and seems rotten in some places, but it is still alive and gives continuously the precious olive oil.
It isn’t an easy task to kill an olive tree. Even when you cut it down, it will sprout and grow again. When it is all decayed, its children will grow around it, into an olive orchard.
The olive tree will live, so the true Christian. The Grace of God in him enables him to live, even when others think he must die. There is no fear in him. Nothing can kill the life of God when it is implanted in the heart of a Believer in Jesus Christ.
The greatest and perfect beauty of the olive tree, is its fruitfulness. It bears fruit full of oil. The olive crop is the best crop that grows on earth.
There is no other tree that can give so much, with so little care from its proprietor. Olive oil for food, for lighting a lamp and even medicinal purposes. The same way the most beautiful Christian in the world is the most fruitful one. In God’s eyes the ones who do the most good work and worship our Father in Heaven, those are the most beautiful Christians, whose soul and spirit belongs to Jesus. Those are the ones whose beauty is like the olive tree. It is a fruitful beauty.
In the 128th Psalm says that the man who fears God and follows His ways, “Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine by the sides of your house, your children like young olive trees around your table”. In an olive orchard, sometimes you see an old olive tree cut down and a few olive trees are growing from its old root, ready to replace it. It is like a good Christian gets succeeded by good children. Apostle John said: “My greatest joy would be to see my children following God’s ways”.
Often you hear that, children of good Christians do not turn out well. It is because as Solomon said, “they have not been taught the right way”. Family prayer is very important and basic training to becoming a good Christian. When God gets into children’s lives, it is impossible to get him out.
There are some olive trees that their branches had been cut mercilessly and left them out there alone, looking for someone to take pity at them and change their present condition. Their branches were cut off because they stopped giving fruit. Then new, fruitful branches grew. The cutting was done to make the olive tree fruitful and more beautiful.
Christians are not beautiful when they are in pain and depressed. They can not praise God under these circumstances. The olive tree does not look its best when it is pruned. The fruit comes afterwards. The beauty of the Christian comes later, after the pain.
“AND YOUR BEAUTY SHALL BE AS THE OLIVE TREE”.