The Parable of the New Owner

There was a man who owned an orchard of well established fruit crops in a fertile valley guarded by a sweeping hillside.  Year after year the orchard’s bounty multiplied.  Year after year it won agricultural acclaim and award.  One day the orchard owner came to his best orchard worker:  ‘I am moving my home to the top of the hill.  The orchard and all its bounty is yours.  Please visit me often; invite me to walk with you through the orchard and, as you wish, I shall be overjoyed to instruct you and counsel you in this craft so that your years of tenure shall be fruitful.’  The worker knew the orchard well.  He had worked the orchard for years prior.  His demonstrated care and knowledge of the orchard, and particularly the pear crop, determined him as a right inheritor.  He was thrilled to become the new owner and agreed to visit often. 

The time of deed transfer turned out also to be the time of harvest, and a marvelous harvest it was; both abundant and succulent by all agricultural standards.  The owner on the hill conceded all acclaim and award to the new owner.  The new owner was well pleased and immediately began imagining the next year’s harvest.  That winter the new owner visited the owner on the hill several times.  On several occasions they walked through the orchard.  The new owner shared with enthusiasm his plan to raise a new blueberry crop in the spring.  The owner on the hill instructed the new owner in procedure and care:  ‘Raising a new crop requires great patience and much work.  What you have has taken me years to raise.’  The new owner was prepared to change structures and increase workers to insure continued acclaim and award.

Spring arrived and the blueberry crop was planted.  Raising the new crop was indeed much work.  The frequency of the new owner’s visits with the owner on the hill waned, and by mid-growing season, their walks together in the orchard ceased.  The owner on the hill counseled the new owner upon one visit:  ‘Understand that a new blueberry crop must be well established before any produce goes to market.  Your first produce should be pruned off and discarded before the harvest season.’  The new owner was concerned with such an idea.  All his hard work would prove a waste and he would have to wait an entire year before any blueberry produce went to market.  ‘He has never raised blueberries,’ the new owner thought, ‘How can he know these things?’ 

By early harvest the new owner was very busy.  He had worked very hard.  He carefully inspected the blueberry crop.  It appeared to be producing quite well.  He carefully inspected the pear crop, as well as the other established fruit crops in the orchard.  They did not appear as bountiful as he remembered from past years.  The owner on the hill counseled the new owner upon one visit:  ‘Every few years even established trees go through a growing season.  Their yield appears less than prior years, but they are merely girding up for greater yield in years to come.  Not all of my years were full of acclaim and award.’  The new owner was concerned with such an idea.  His produce would not meet agricultural standards.  His first year would appear a failure.  He would not enjoy acclaim and award.  The new owner decided to allow the new blueberry crop to grow to fruition rather than prune it back in an effort to offset the lean yield of the more established fruit crops in the orchard.

By harvest time the new blueberry crop looked marvelous; one of the best yields from a first year blueberry crop in all agricultural history.  The new owner enjoyed much acclaim and award.  The owner on the hill smiled pleasantly upon one visit:  ‘I am happy for you.’  The new owner was quick to be on his way.  His disappointment in the produce of the other established fruit crops in the orchard was great.  He faulted his workers and began to consider some changes.

Amidst the thought of possible changes to workers, the new owner was planning to raise yet another new crop.  The local wine industry was booming and he perceived a market for grapes.  The owner on the hill counseled him upon one visit:  ‘Though not impossible, a grape crop would be very difficult to raise in this climate and in that valley.  Perhaps you ought to focus on the other more established fruit crops in the orchard to insure viable produce by next harvest.  They may be poised for a bumper yield, but it will require careful attention through this next season.’  The new owner was frustrated and decided he would move forward with raising the new grape crop despite the counsel of the owner on the hill. 

By late winter the new owner hired a worker to tend the blueberry crop while he began planting a vineyard of grapes.  He tended to them carefully while keeping an eye on those working with the other fruit in the orchard.  By late spring he became concerned about the pear crop and he intervened.  Throughout the growing season he became concerned about each of the other fruit crops and again intervened.  By late summer the new owner had become so busy with concern and intervention that the new grape crop was all but failing.  At harvest time the pear crop yielded a menial produce, and the other established fruit crops in the orchard followed suit.  The two year old blueberry crop yielded produce so minimal in both abundance and succulence that the market turned it down.  And the new owner’s grape crop produced far below the standard for the winery market.  There was no acclaim and award that year.

The new owner, reeling in dismay over the miserable harvest turned again to the workers of the orchard in disappointment.  His hardened responses to their seeming excuses only widened the gulch of frustration with them.  Gradually the workers resigned, leaving the new owner with the task of hiring more workers.  By winter the new owner was overwhelmed with more than he could handle.  The pear crop was on the verge of decline, along with the other established fruit crops of the orchard.  The blueberry crop, though started, was poised to die over the winter months.  The grape crop proved to be a waste of resources.  The workers that remained lacked direction and morale.  And the new owner himself was on the brink of giving up. 

 
At last the new owner paid a visit to the owner on the hill.  ‘I have missed you,’ said the owner on the hill, ‘How was the harvest?’  The question proved rhetorical as the owner on the hill continued:  ‘It has been nearly a year since we have visited; even more since we have walked together in the orchard.  How have you managed without my instruction?  How have you lived without my presence?  What has been the fruit of your labor without my careful counsel?’