So about a year ago, I received from my uncle, a nice puakenikeni tree. Actually, it was a little shoot of a tree because as anyone knows, you can’t just grow a puakenikeni tree from a seed. You need to graft it to a tree branch or something (I actually don’t know the full extent of the growings of this tree, but that’s what I’ve been told). So my uncle did all of that and gave us a little treeling in a can. After watering it and caring for it for a few months, my little treeling was ready to go into the ground. I dug a little hole and put the tree in and staked it upright. Then I waited. And I waited. And waited some more. Finally, after some long months of waiting, I finally got to see the fruits of my labor. My little treeling had its first full set of puakenikeni flowers.

Now, when I planted the tree, I fully anticipated puakenikeni flowers to bloom from it. What else could I expect? It would be silly of me to expect this tree to grow mangoes or oranges or even have hibiscuses. The only thing this tree knows how to grow is puakenikeni flowers. One tree cannot grow multiple types of fruits (although I hear science is getting close). This is the same with us. Jesus told us to “Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:4-5). We see here that it is super important to remain in Jesus (or put another way, remain in the Word). Just like my little tree could not survive unless it was attached to a more mature tree, we are the same way. We need to be attached to Jesus. But the question remains, what kind of fruit are we bearing?

Later in the New Testament we see exactly what kind of fruit we should be bearing. Paul calls them the fruit of the Spirit. This is a handy checklist to see what kind of fruit we are bearing. They are: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23). Check yourself against this list to see what you need to work on. I would even encourage you to ask others to see what fruit they see you bearing (a word of caution on this one though, if you’re going to ask someone to look at your fruit choose someone that will give it to you straight but still be encouraging. It is too easy to get really negative and only focus on your faults and that’s the last thing you want to do. So choose wisely, someone that you trust and is encouraging).

If you’re not showing these fruits there may be a problem with your nutrient supply. Maybe it means spending more time in the Word or more time praying. See, if you’re not producing any fruit what good are you? If my tree did not produce any flowers I would be the proud owner of a big stick stuck in my back yard. I might as well pull it out. One of the signs of a mature Christian is mature fruits. Even if you’ve been a Christian for a long time, you can still have immature fruits. So no matter where you are, mature or brand-new, you can still grow even more. That’s the beauty of our God. You can always be (and should be always) growing.