The Season of the Second Chance

And then Jesus told this parable about the fig tree, that was in danger of being chopped down or up-rooted. It was wasting space, the landowner thought. But the gardener, the patient gardener, made a case to spare the tree for another season. Let me dig around it, put some manure on it. I believe you will see figs next year. If you don't, then you can cut it down. Thus the gardener gave the fig tree a second chance.
I find poetic significance in the manure. What the tree needed most was refuse, manure, nothing of value, in fact something which is usually considered no good to anyone, and it is in copious supply wherever there are animals. Manure happens. Remember the bumper sticker?
I am sure we can all think of a time when we felt absolutely up to our necks in manure. Asking ourselves, "Why is all this manure happening to me. My life is a veritable manure storm." A sickness, loss of a job, divorce, whatever. But then, a few weeks or months or years later, we can look back and say, "You know, that was really awful, but if that hadn't happened, then I would not have become the person that I am today. If it weren't for that illness, I would never have developed the compassion or the patience for others who are in pain. Or if I hadn't been fired from that job, I would never have had the courage to make a new life in a new line. Or, if it hadn't been for that divorce, I wouldn't have met the person who is now the love of my life."
I'm not saying that God makes bad things happen so that we can grow. I'm saying that manure happens. I don't know what role God plays in it, God's ways are higher than ours, and the same with God's thoughts and plans. I do believe when manure happens, God is able to use it for our good. God takes it and turns it into something that gives growth. And we get a second chance, an extended season.
Lent is the season of repentance, which is another way to say it is the season of the second chance. We know Lent will come again next year, but none of us know for certain whether we will come around again. So teach us to number our days, that we may grow in wisdom, and use the time at hand to produce those good fruits of the spirit-- goodness, kindness, patience and the like-- and rejoice in all circumstances, for God is working it all into the soil from which we are made. Thanks be to God. Amen.