Fruitful and Multiplied

By Jennifer Greene-Sullivan 

In 2010, my daddy planted a stick.

Well, technically, it was a little cypress tree he had taken from the creek. The pond had been drained so he could finish building the gazebo, and Daddy decided that little tree needed a new home.

So, he planted it.

There was nothing particularly magnificent about it then. Just a small tree standing in the mud, waiting to grow.

When Daddy passed away in December 2016, that cypress was still small but mighty. He never got to see what it would become.

But I have.

This fall, I stood looking at that same tree, now towering over the pond, its branches dressed in the most magnificent shades of copper and gold. What Daddy planted as a little stick has become something breathtaking.

And I thought about a conversation we had while I was caring for him during his illness.

He looked at me, smiled, and took my hand.

“Baby, I’ve had a good life, and I’ve been fruitful and multiplied.”

He wasn’t talking about the things he’d built, the property he’d owned, or the work he’d accomplished.

He was talking about his children.

My brothers and I were his fruit.

I have carried those words in my heart for nearly ten years, but looking at that cypress reminded me of something even greater than my daddy’s legacy.

It reminded me of God’s faithfulness.

You see, we spend so much of our lives wanting to see the results of what we plant. We pray for our children, pour into our families, encourage others, share our faith, and sometimes wonder whether any of it is making a difference.

We want to see the harvest.

But what if the harvest isn’t ours to see?

What if the little seed of faith we plant today becomes a mighty tree long after we’ve gone home to Jesus?

Daddy never saw that cypress in all its autumn glory, but that didn’t stop it from growing.

Ultimately, God’s faithfulness didn’t end when Daddy’s earthly life did.

Years later, my own son was baptized in that very pond in front of Daddy’s little cypress tree. Another generation. Another testimony. Another reminder that what is planted in faith can continue bearing fruit.

Scripture reminds us in 1 Corinthians 3:6 that one plants, another waters, but God gives the growth.

Oh, how often we forget that last part!

We are called to plant faithfully, to water obediently, and to trust God with what happens next.

Maybe you’re praying for a child who has wandered. Maybe you’re pouring into someone who doesn’t seem to hear you. Maybe you’ve spent years sowing love into a place that still looks barren.

Keep planting.

The harvest belongs to God, and His faithfulness reaches farther than our eyes can see.

Daddy planted a little cypress tree.

God kept growing it.

And every autumn, when those branches turn to gold, I am reminded that even when the hands that planted are gone, the One who gives the increase remains.

After all, even torn wings can fly.