My minister, Ned Hill, spoke this last Sunday about his love of figs … and his inability to turn down the offer of some fresh figs from a stranger on a park bench in DC. The two of them conversed for a bit, and then, seemingly out of the blue, the stranger said, “My God, you’re a preacher!” Turns out the stranger was a Rabbi, and he could recognize one of his own kind.

Well, all of this made me crave figs, and we’re still dealing with a frigidly cold winter and the forecast for more of the white stuff coming our way. Dried figs aren’t really going to satisfy the craving, and so I’ll just have to wait patiently and, instead, fill myself up with stories about fig trees from the Bible.

There are two main reasons I’m talking about craving figs here. One is to tout a great new book by Lysa TerKeurst called Made to Crave, where she invites women (and men, too) to hold on to the truth that “we were made to crave … God, not food.” So while I’ll have to wait a few months to satisfy my craving for fresh figs, I can satisfy my need for fig stories and what they say about God’s truth for my life by turning to the Bible.

That’s the second reason I’m writing about figs in the middle of winter. I want to introduce you to this new blog: The Flourishing Tree. I hope you’ll read along as I share my journey through the Bible to explore the ways trees spring up as metaphors for how we should live our lives.  Along with Biblical encounters, I’ll share with you some other ways my life is flourishing: through writing, running, reading, art, music and more. And I hope you’ll do the same – the seeds you share here may be just what another reader needs to transform into a flourishing tree, too!

Blessings,
Hope