P. Pilgrim
On a recent trip to a national park I was surprised to see apples growing horizontally along a wall! It was an apple tree but its branches had been trimmed, clipped and tied, to train them to grow along the wall like honeysuckle and jasmine. Don’t be confused it was a tree but it had been trained to climb along the wall. Many years ago I was at a wildlife park and there one old monkey had been trained to light a cigarette and smoke it! It was incredible to watch this old baboon, striking the match and then puffing away on the cigarette. Again this was a learned practice, it was still a baboon but had been trained to do something against its nature, just like the tree. Learned actions are acquired from watching, copying and practicing them repeatedly. I am sure many of you have watched dogs and cats on you tube or tik tok, acting like their owners or even it would appear to be talking! This is learned behaviour which allows a creature to adapt and modify what it does to suit the environment. This is the opposite to inherited behavior, for example a dog will salivate at the sight of food, it understands that soon it will enjoy this food this is an inherited behavior. However, if the dog sees the food and hears a bell ring at the same time, then it associates the bell ringing with receiving food. If this happens often enough then the dog will salivate at the sound of the bell even if it doesn’t see the food. It has been imprinted onto its mind that the both go together and so is a learned behavior. Many animals in circuses have learned actions they are trained to do things for the entertainment of the public. However they have not changed they have just learned a new skill, the old inherited behaviour is still in them. An apple tree can only produce apples or a mango tree only produced mangos. The fruit can’t change.
A tree generally grows upwards not horizontal along a wall, a monkey usually climbs and swings in the trees, it should not light cigarettes and pretend to smoke it. Learned actions are acquired from watching, copying and practicing. In the gospel of Matthew chapter 12 verse 33 Jesus Christ says to the people around him ‘for the tree is known by his fruit’. A tree can be trained to grow in a different manner, but its fruit will not change. An apple tree bears apples not mangos. If you have a good tree it will bring forth good fruit, if you have a corrupt or wild tree it will always bring forth corrupt fruit. The Lord Jesus was asking the people around him what type of fruit did they bring forth. If we say the root of a tree is like the heart of man, then if his heart by nature is full of the grace of God then it will speak a language that is full of the love of God. On the other hand, if the heart is full of deceit then it will speak evil communications, because the language of man is like the fruit of the tree. No matter how man may try to improve and better himself if his heart is not full of the grace of God he will not bring forth good fruit. Eventually his true nature will be seen and heard by those around him. Mans heart needs to be transformed by the grace of God to produce in him good fruit.
