What does your life look like when people get past the leaves and see the fruit? We live in a world where appearances can be carefully managed. We can look good, sound good, and even appear spiritual while something deeper is missing. But Jesus isn’t impressed by leaves. He is looking for fruit.
In Mark 11, Jesus approaches a fig tree covered in leaves, expecting to find fruit, but discovers there is nothing to give. The tree becomes a powerful picture of a life that advertises one thing but delivers another. Through this encounter, Jesus challenges us to examine whether our outward appearance matches what is actually growing within us.
Galatians 5 calls that inner growth the “Fruit of the Spirit”—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. But spiritual fruit isn’t produced by trying harder to look Christian. Jesus tells us in John 15 that fruit comes from remaining connected to Him. When our roots go deep into Jesus, His character begins to grow in us.
And here is the surprising thing about real fruit: it isn’t grown for the tree. It is grown for someone else. Love, joy, patience, and kindness become meaningful when they reach another person. The more we grow like Jesus, the more we bend low to serve, love, forgive, and give ourselves away.
As we begin “Grow A Pear,” we will discover that the first fruits grow when we stop making life about us. Jesus already demonstrated this kind of life by bending low for us. Now He invites us to do the same for others.
