Gum from a Lemon Tree?

I wasn't fooled.

After all, I was six years old! I knew very well that what I saw that morning wasn't reality.

My baby brother, on the other hand? He was a mere two years old, and he seemed pretty enthralled and excited. You could fool him. But you couldn't fool me!

I felt a little sorry for my Grandpa that morning. He always tried very hard to create special moments for the people he loved. Truth is, he was good at it. He was a generous man and a fun Grandpa! He had a flair for the dramatic too, so you never quite knew what plans he might have up his sleeve. But this time, I didn't buy it.

Our little family of four (Dad, Mom, myself and my brother) were living temporarily in California while Dad finished up his medical specialty training. Mom was an only child, so Grandpa and Grandma made it a point to fly out from their home in Washington, DC, to visit us on numerous occasions during the three years we were on the West Coast. On this particular morning, they had just arrived late the night before. My brother and I had gone to bed before they arrived, so we were excited to wake up and see them for the first time in several months.

What we hadn't bargained on was being led immediately outside to the backyard, to behold a transformation that had taken place on our lemon tree.

That lemon tree was a wonder all on its own. I remember on many occasions my parents declaring, "These lemons are as big as grapefruits!" It was beautiful and fruitful and didn't need any help.

However, my Grandpa had decided it would be fun to turn that lemon tree into a gum tree! Somehow in the early morning hours, before we little ones awakened, he had used Scotch tape to hang an enormous number of packages of Trident sugarless gum all over the lower-hanging branches of the tree. (It was sugarless gum, of course, because the American Dental Association declared that sugar-filled gum was not good for children.)

And thus the moment arrived, when my brother and I were happily greeted by our adoring grandparents, then were led outside to behold the wonder that had happened while we were sleeping. Our lemon tree had "turned into a gum tree!"

Except I wasn't fooled.

As my brother began excitedly "picking gum" from the tree, I just shook my head. Did he actually believe this was real? Did Grandpa actually think we would believe it? Don't get me wrong - I was happy to have the gum! But I knew where it had come from. And I knew that no amount of taping gum on a lemon tree would ever cause that tree to produce gum on its own. It was a lemon tree at heart. It couldn't produce anything else.

I decided to smile and act excited and play along. After all - Grandpa and Grandma had come a long way, I was happy to see them, and they had given us the gift of a LOT of gum!

(I wonder how many packages it was? I think it must have been at least 50 - that was a big tree, and there was gum hanging all over the reachable branches!)

But what Grandpa really gave me that day was a story.....a story that God would bring back to my mind several years later, to help me understand a valuable lesson.

Jesus said, "...each tree is known by its own fruit. For men do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they pick grapes from a briar bush. The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart." (Luke 6:44,45)

The Lord Jesus is very kind and gentle with children. He assures us, "the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." (Matthew 19:14) At the same time, when a young child comes to Him, He knows very well that as they grow up there is more that they will need to learn. And He is a faithful Teacher!

When I prayed as a young child, "God I know I'm a sinner....please forgive my sins and make me Your own," I meant it with all of my heart. I knew He received me. But He also very kindly made sure that as I entered my teenage years, I didn't stay satisfied with a small-child understanding of salvation. He knew I needed to be broken in a different way. I needed to see myself in the light of His holiness. I needed to feel with the words of Paul, "I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing". (Romans 7:18)

I had always been the "good girl". I wanted to please my parents and teachers. I wanted people to think highly of me. I even wanted to impress God. (Oh how foolish we are....) The more my family became involved in church and youth groups, the more I wanted to be spiritually impressive. So I tried really hard to do everything right! But there came a day when God exposed to me the motives of my own heart.

It was during my ninth-grade year that the Lord compelled me to read "The Pursuit of God" by A.W. Tozer. (I say the Lord compelled me....literally, I saw the book sitting on a table in my house and felt so moved to pick it up and read it that I just knew the weight of eternity would come crashing down on my soul if I didn't!) If

you've never read that book, PLEASE DO. It will change your life.... But it was in the third chapter that the Lord spoke so powerfully to my heart that it was like scales fell off my eyes. I saw myself in a way that I had never seen myself before. Here's what it said:

"Self can live unrebuked at the very altar.... It can fight for the faith of the Reformers and preach eloquently the creed of salvation by grace, and gain strength by its efforts. To tell all the truth, it seems actually to feed upon orthodoxy and is more at home in a Bible Conference than in a tavern. Our very state of longing after God may afford it an excellent condition under which to thrive and grow. Self is the opaque veil that hides the Face of God from us. It can be removed only in spiritual experience, never by mere instruction. As well try to instruct leprosy out of our system. There must be a work of God......."

Bingo. That was me. I saw it. My heart was full of spiritual pride. All my "goodness", all my efforts, all my taking a stand for the

Gospel, even all my attempts to humble myself before God, had a root of self-centeredness at the heart-level.

God wasn't fooled! I was trying to tape gum on a lemon tree!

But no matter how many good things I tried to add onto my life, my heart was still self-centered. No sooner would I do something good - witness to a classmate, obey my parents, even study the Bible - but my self-life would be standing right there saying, "Look at you! You are so wonderful! I'll bet nobody else in your ninth grade class is seeking God and serving Him like you are...."

I will never forget the day when I saw that glimpse of the corruption of my own heart, in the light of God's holiness! I realized that my chains of pride were something I couldn't break on my own. I literally fell on my face in my bedroom, crying out to Jesus, "Lord, save me....not just from my sins.....I need you save me from ME."

There was no lightning-bolt at that moment, only a sense that the Lord had heard me, and that He was able to do this work of deliverance. I had accepted the fact that self needed to die. He assured me that HE was mighty to save, and to bring about a whole new life from the inside out. Any "goodness" that now would come from my life would have nothing to do with me trying very hard to "tape onto myself" characteristics that seemed godly. It would all be HIS doing. "Christ in you....the hope of glory." (Colossians 1:27)

THAT is the REAL lesson that came from my Grandpa's gift that day.