Read Zenos’s Allegory of the Olive Tree, and you’ll get a sense for God’s unwavering love for you. Eight times, the Lord of the Vineyard says some variation of: “It grieveth me that I should lose this tree.” In one particularly poignant passage, he asks his servant three times, “What could I have done more in my vineyard?” before listing a number of his activities in the garden: nourishing, digging, pruning, dunging, and stretching out his hand “almost all the day long” (Jacob 5:41, 47, 49; see also Isaiah 5:14, 2 Nephi 15:14).
As Elder Patrick Kearon taught us this weekend, “God is in relentless pursuit of you. He ‘wants all of His children to choose to return to Him,’ and He employs every possible measure to bring you back.” (“God’s Intent Is to Bring You Home,” General Conference, April 2024).
Today I will remember God’s deep and abiding love for each of His children. I will rely on that love as I trust Him to help me and my loved ones overcome our sins and weaknesses and achieve our full potential as His sons and daughters.
Thanks Paul. Your comment about the Lord “grieving” 8x got me thinking about how “nourish” appears 22x.
Interesting how there’s an almost 3-to-1 relationship of nourish to grieve. Perhaps there’s a lesson there…
– Focus more on the nourishing activities and less on measuring intermediate results?
– Give it your all on nourishing activities so that you are emotionally invested when it’s time to measure results?
– Take time to assess progress and make course-corrections but know that you must let enough time pass by before we will see results. The effort undertaken during that passage of time may put us at risk of feeling sad about significant unfruitful efforts?
Great observation. I hadn’t noticed that the word “nourish” appears so many times, and I like the idea that a focus on nourishing can mitigate some of the inevitable worrying and grieving along the way. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!