The Money Tree

My entire life I have heard the saying "money doesn't grow on trees" and until this month I completely believed that. As a child, my parents took me to the Mint in DC where I saw money being made and recognize that it is a man made object not a naturally grown necessity. However, this month my idea of money changed.

Let me start back in January when we moved into this house in Hobe Sound, FL. Upon arrival we noticed that we had not only purchased a home but it had come with fully mature fruit trees. Two trees were citrus trees and one was a starfruit. The citrus trees must have been hit with a frost at some point in their development as they don't really produce much to harvest and are honestly very puny looking specimens. The starfruit tree, however, produced a massive quantity of fruit and had a very rapid ripening rate. At first we had no idea what to do with all of the produce coming off that one tree. Mom found several recipes online for starfruit and from those we made bread, jelly, and syrup to cover chicken. After a while we had more fruit than we could manage and none of our neighbors wanted any of it. By the end of the month, we were merely throwing it over our fence into the wooded area for animals to eat just so we wouldn't have anything laying on our ground drawing bugs and rats. It was such a loss but I just had no idea what to do with the stuff.

This summer I was shopping at the local produce stand on US 1 and began talking to the lady who owns it about her jams and jellies. I was interested to know if she had any recipes that used starfruit. The second I said that word her eyes lit up and she said, "You have starfruit? I can't seem to find any grown locally." I proceeded to tell her that we had a tree that produced more fruit than I could handle and asked her if she would like to buy it off of me. Immediately she agreed and I was overjoyed at the idea of making extra money and getting rid of our fruit. It was June when I spoke to her and only recently did I discover that the tree began to produce fruit. Last week I took three of them to her to see if she was still interested and she said, "yes". I was thrilled.

Now fast forward to today and you will see where my excitement comes from. I went out into the yard to pick up fruit that had fallen off the tree and to pick a bag for her. I found almost two large bags of fruit ripe enough to take to her and discovered at least four more bags hanging there almost ripe enough to pick. Bubba and I packed up the fruit and took it to her stand only to find out that she will be paying me around $10 a bag! (not too bad for something that is free to me) I'm so overwhelmed at God's goodness of planting a money tree in our yard. Even before we lived in this home He was preparing a place for us. It reminds me of the verse in the Bible that says, "I come to prepare a place for you." He knows what we need before we know and He knows how to prepare for us. If we trust him with our daily lives, why do we have such a hard time trusting Him with our future? Worrying about what tomorrow will bring only takes away His chance to do miracles. Stop worrying about what might happen and allow Him to guide you to what He has planned for you.

So the next time someone says, "money doesn't grow on trees" be sure to tell them that in a Godless world that statement would be true. However, in a world ruled by the One True Mighty King, money does grow on trees and He plants it in just the right places at just the right time in your life. Sometimes it requires the right perspective and a little elbow grease but He always provides just what you need.