The Bean Stalk

     The green bean vines had grown along the five-foot fence and were relatively lush and green. However, there were gaps in the lush bean leafs, as the plants competed with vegetation, that was growing next to the bean vines, outside the garden fence. Specifically, an unidentified tree had grown up, within a couple of months, and was about seven feet high. It was blocking sunlight from the plants and the roots of the tree competed with the beans for water and nourishment.
     Being irritated with the itinerant tree, I cut it down with a saw, and attempted to drag away the thin tree trunk and leafy branches. Sadly, I did not notice that some of the bean vines had wrapped around the branches of this tree and were entwined within the tree. When the tree was dragged away, these bean vines were also dragged and torn from their vines. So, in the process of trying to provide more sun and nourishment for the green bean vines, some of them were actually destroyed.
     It made me consider how our Heavenly Father must agonize over our condition. He sees evil and corruption in the world, that needs to be uprooted, but He sees His children foolishly intertwine with it. Either the tree needed to be cut down as a small sapling (before its nature was known) or it is necessary to let tree and vines continue to grow together, until the end of the harvest. After the fruits of the beans are harvested, then the tree can be cut down and destroyed. Or the tree can be saw from the roots, and allowed to wither, even as the beans continue to cling to it. A lesson to us is to keep our eyes on our Heavenly Father and make no compromise with what is not of Him.