“The Sycomore Fig Tree” by Christine Norvell

You can learn a lot from a sycomore fig tree. Ask author Christine Norvell.

The first thing is the spelling of “sycomore.” I had to fight with AutoCorrect (not to mention Google) to keep it from changing the spelling to “sycamore.” Sycamore is the American tree; the British sycamore is actually a maple. The sycomore fig’s official name is Ficus Sycomorus, and it’s native to the Middle East and some parts of Africa. It’s similar to the common fig (Ficus Carica) we know today.

 

It’s also found in the Bible, and that’s the sycomore Norvell writes about in The Sycomore Fig Tree: Biblical Botany & Scriptural Truth. Her starting point is the prophet Amos, who, when told to go prophesy somewhere other than the northern kingdom of Isreal, says, “I was no prophet, nor prophet’s son, but I was a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore figs. But the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’ Now therefore hear the word of the Lord” (ESV). (Yes, I see that the ESV spells it “sycamore.”)

 

It is with Amos that Norvell begins her study. The amazing thing is that she adroitly condenses her research in commentaries, ancient Mediterranean horticulture, archaeology, botany, and the Bible into a compact, readableg work of 120 pages. Her thesis: “How the sycomore fig tree and the tending of all trees parallel our life in Christ and the challenges we face.” What follows is something beautiful.

 

Christine Norvell

She provides a history of the sycomore fig (it was originally native to Israel), explaining how it takes root, tended, harvested and gathered, and pruned, and how caring for tree is a communal function. Amos called himself a herder and dresser of figs, but he worked with other people to do his work. She also goes beyond the sycomore fig and describes the trees she and her family care for on their property. She applies the discussion in each chapter applies to living the Christian life. 

 

Norvell is a freelance writer who’s published on literature, education, music, and the Bible. She received a master’s degree in Humanities from Faulkner University’s Great Books program. She published Till We Have Faces: A Reading Companion in 2020. She’s also written for The Imaginative Conservative, Front Porch Republic, Mere Orthodoxy, Public Discourse, and University Bookman. The Sycomore Fig Tree also includes notes, a bibliography, and a recommended reading list, and Norvell uses numerous photographs and reproductions to illustrate the text. 

 

We can learn from trees, trees like the sycomore fig. We can also learn, as Norvell, did, from the trees in our own yards and parks. The Sycomore Fig Tree also is one of the most engaging Bible studies I’ve read. Amos the herdsman and fig dresser was called to be a prophet, because he had the experience and qualities that were needed.

 

Some Monday Readings

 

Phyllis Bray, Artist  and Doreen Fletcher’s New Paintings – Spitalfields Life.

 

Wendell Berry’s Wisdom for Living in Time – Anne Ryan at Plough Magazine.

 

Poor Bastard: Henry Fielding’s Triumphant Tom Jones – Joel Miller at Miller’s Book Review.

 

“free and Independent States”: The 250^th Anniversary of the Lee Resolution – Kevin Pawlak at Emerging Revolutionary War Era.

 

Social Media Is Not for Everyone – Terry Whalin at The Writing Life.

Wisdom from above

After James 3:13-18 

Wisdom comes from

living in Christ, being

open to all and 

allowing the Spirit

to dwell within you.

Wisdom from above

can be identified

and defined: peace,

gentleness, listening

to others, mercy,

producing good,

impartial, sincere.

When that wisdom

is present it sows

righteousness, it sows

in peace, it produces

a great harvest.

Wisdom is not sought

as an end in itself;

wisdom happens when

it’s instilled from above.

And it’s demonstrated

by a beautiful life.

 

Photograph by Tim Wildsmith via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Sunday Readings

 

Sing Like You’re Saved: Overcoming Seven Obstacles to Worship – Bob Kauflin at Desiring God.

 

When Discipleship is Difficult, Start with Delight – Aaron Armstrong at Story Warren.

 

The Humbling I Needed – Melissa Edgington at Your Mom Has a Blog.

Saturday Good Reads – June 6, 2026

A Chinese state photographer took the pictures. The film rolls were locked in a metal box. Somehow, the rolls made their way to the United States and placed in the hands of The Epoch Times. And now the photos on the films are being published – never-before-seen photographs of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing. 

As we get closer to July 4, the stream of articles and posts about the 250^th anniversary of the American Revolution is becoming a flood. Keli Holt at Just Enough History writes about the fall of Philadelphia and that winter at Valley Forge. Yuval Levin at The Coolidge Review explains why 1776 was both radical and conservative. John Barnes at The Imaginative Conservative draws a line from Runneymede in 1215 to Philadelphia in 1776. If you’re in the mood, you can visit an exhibition that lets you tear down (virtually) a statue of George III. And you can find more links below.

 

Today is the 82^nd anniversary of D-Day. Two relatively little-known things helped make it possible. One was the Higgins boat, designed by a man who lived in my hometown of New Orleans. The other was a man named Juan Pujol Garcia, who went by the code name of “Garbo.”

 

More Good Reads

 

America 250

 

In the Ranks of the Revolution: James Johnston’s War – Lori Amos Doss & Harred Marlowe at Emerging Revolutionary War Era.

 

Thomas Jefferson’s Last Wish – Jane Kamensky at The Free Press.

 

Five Great Books on the American Revolution – Thomas Kidd.

 

Virginia Leads the Way, All the Way – Jonathan Horn at The Free Press.

 

The Undoing of Benedict Arnold and the Battle of Monmouth Courthouse – Keli Holt at Just Enough History.

 

Life and Culture

 

The Language of Drought and Duty – Colin Gillette at Front Porch Republic.

 

American Stuff

 

Can We Restore the Republic? – Bradley Birzer at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

The Long History of Gerrymandering in American Politics – Jerald Stubbs at Real Clear History.

 

Poetry

 

A Review of The Future of Love by John Poch – Benjamin Myers at New Verse Review.

 

Poetic Justices: The Poetry of United States Supreme Court Justices – Adam Sedia at Society of Classical Poets.

 

“Pied Beauty,” poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Welcome and Farewell – Andrew Roycroft at New Grub Street.

 

Writing and Literature

 

The Noble North – Joseph Pearce at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

British Stuff

 

Police policies must be reformed – David Spencer at The Critic Magazine.

 

Britain’s Reverse George Floyd Moment – Dominic Green at The Wall Street Journal (unlocked).

 

Faith

 

Strong to the End – Tim Challies.

 

Winston Churchill: Mentor for Our Times – Stephen Mansfield at Institute for Faith, Work, & Economics.

 

Sunday is Coming – Phil Wickham

 Painting: Oil Woman Reading a Book, oil on canvas by Pieter van den Bosch (1613-1673), Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg. 

Where wisdom is not

After James 3:13-18 

If you see jealousy,

if you experience it 

yourself, you will

not find wisdom.

If you feel selfish

ambition in your heart,

a desire for glory,

recognition, praise 

of others, you will

not find wisdom.

Jealousy and selfish

ambition produce

disorder and vileness.

That’s the wisdom

of this world, unspiritual;

that’s the wisdom

of this world, demonic. 

 

Photograph by Priscilla Du Preez via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Friday Readings

 

Eusebius, Early Christianity’s Historian – Michael De Sapio at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

“She Prays,” poem by Ella Higginson – D.S. Martin at Kingdom Poets.

 

The Distance We Keep – Michael Mellette at Mockingbird.

 

The Life God Didn’t Let You Live – Katie Kaitkep. 

Poets and Poems: Diana Lockward and “The Color Wheel”

I don’t recall where I read it, but some blogger or publication or Substack posted a poetry prompt: write about a color without ever mentioning the name of it. It’s both easier and harder than it looks. To make it more difficult, try writing a poem about a color with mentioning the color or an associated feeling or emotion. 

An exercise like that does make you immediately aware of the importance color can have in poetry and even in everyday conversation. We feel blue. We see red. We’re in the pink. That potato salad made me feel green. His mood was black. 

 

Poet, editor, and publisher Diana Lockward says she’s long had an attraction to poems that use color. Over the years, she kept a folder of poems that did exactly that. And then, she had an idea – an anthology of poems that make strategic use of color. She put out a call for submissions. 

 

And poets responded. At least 117 of them did, and likely more, each by a different poet. And The Color Wheel: Poems was born. And the result is, well, more diverse and colorful than you might expect.

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.

Some Thursday Readings

“The Ballad of the Dead Ladies,” poem by Dante Gabirel Rossetti – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

“The Cottage on the Ridge” and “The Garden Hermit’s Confession” – poems at Martin Rizley at Society of Classical Poets.

 

“And if I Did, What Then?”, poem by George Gascoigne – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

The Strangest First Day on the Job I Ever Had

I felt more than a little apprehension. I was in morning rush hour traffic, driving to downtown St. Louis from the close-in suburb where I lived. It was something of a new experience. I hadn’t driven in rush-hour traffic since leaving Houston 25 years earlier. The apprehension wasn’t about traffic; I had stepped outside my career experience and accepted a job with St. Louis Public Schools. And I was early; the hours were 8 to 5, but I decided to be there by 7:30. 

Except for nine months at a newspaper straight out of college, my career had been exclusively corporate communications: employee communications, crisis communications, media relations, environmental communications, and speechwriting. Especially speechwriting. Even for the three years I had had my own consulting business, I worked for companies, doing mostly speechwriting. 

 

Corporations have their moments of craziness and crisis, but they pale in comparison to urban school districts. And yet, here I was, driving to my first day on the job at the largest school district in the state of Missouri, a district that had been in crisis for years and was now in hyper-crisis. 

To continue reading, please see my post today at Dancing Priest.

Photograph via St. Louis Public Schools.

Some Wednesday Readings

 

End Game at Appomattox – Mike Phifer at Warfare History Network. 

 

Millennials Tried Being Angry. It Didn’t Work – Samuel D. James at Digital Liturgies.

 

A Memo in the Wilderness: Why does the Church of England now sound like an HR department? – James Martin Charlton at the Critic Magazine.

Poets and Poems: Joanne Esser and "Nothing Is Stationary"

Something happens when you read a poetry collection, while you watch soft rainfall outside the kitchen window, raindrops making tiny splashes in the birdbath. The birds have taken cover somewhere. So have the squirrels, especially the one who likes to dig up the zinnias. The young rabbit who finds the rose bush – with all its thorns! – delicious is missing. And you find yourself slipping into reflection.  

If the poetry collection is one like Nothing Is Stationary, the new publication by Joanne Esser, your reflections are not only sharpened but also take you down paths you didn’t expect to go. Esser is realizing that most of her life is behind her, and she’s thinking about where she came from and where she is. 

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.

Some Tuesday Readings

 

The Sowers – poem by Gabriele D’Annunzio.

 

Mr. Pope – Poem by Allen Tate at Academy of American Poets.

 

“Dover Beach,” poem by Matthew Arnold – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Dark Green, Forest Green – poem by Linda Nemec Foster at Every Day Poems.

 

Stern Shoots Marilyn – poem by Mauren Doallas at Writing Without Paper.

 

“Sheep,” poem by W.H. Davies – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient an Modern.