If you're familiar with the musical Hamilton, you might recognise the line, “Everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree.” The short walk between DCF and the dental surgery and café next door, past the vines and fig trees, had an established soundtrack each time I popped over for my flat white... I had taken multiple trips before I learned that dentist, Karl Bailey hadn't randomly chosen these but because they seemed appropriate. 

The full Hamilton lyric also includes the words “as the Bible says...” but it surprised me to learn that the quote appears multiple times and in different contexts there... One use is remembrance of past peace and plenty, another is an enemy lure to captivity, and twice more the line is of a promise yet to be realised. 

Fruit takes time, promises can seem far off, and discouragement can visit when the season shows no sign of fruition. Vines and fig trees lose their leaves for winter - but are waiting for the season to change. They are not dead, and the promise or expectation can remain when we understand that waiting is almost always involved. The wait is part of the rhythm. Buds begin to swell before the cold is gone—the roots sense the lengthening days, and the first signs of the season’s change appear even before the air warms - which Jesus already said - and said it better! 

May we each wait well, and nurture our hope in His promises as February leads us forward. 

Heather McEwan 

See: 1 Kings 4:24, 2 Kings 18:31, Micah 4:4, Zechariah 3:10, Matthew 24:32–33