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Grafted Spiritually
by Garwood H. Walton
As a young man I learned much about grafting as we used a modified process called budding to
produce fruit trees. A few years later I began to read the Book of Mormon, and there I encountered the
allegory of the Tame and Wild Olive Trees. My grandfather, Fredrick W. Walton, and his brother-in-law Jesse Porter, started Porter-Walton Company. in 1905. The Company grew to be the largest wholesale garden supply & nursery production business in the Intermountain West. During my teenage years I worked in fruit tree production where 20 to 25 thousand trees a year were grown (including peach, apricot, apple, cherry, pear plus Ash and other shade trees). A modified grafting process called budding was used to create these trees. Because of this experience with grafting fruit trees as part of the family nursery production business, I thought I could easily understand the allegory, and much of it I did understand; I even produced trees as a personal venture, before and after my mission, to help with expenses (about 5,000 trees each time). Five decades after my grafting experience, and a great deal of scripture study coupled with the blessing of many Church callings, I’m sure my understanding is much deeper.
In the Allegory from the Book of Zenos, Jacob Chapter 5, the essential elements for growing
fruitful trees are: good branches (Jacob 5:8); strong healthy roots (Jacob 5:18); cultivation and nourishing (Jacob 5:5); and fertile soil. Beyond these basic botanical necessities, it has always been necessary to engage in grafting or budding to ensure that the fruit-bearing trees would consistently produce fruit of acceptable quality. Trees grown from seed directly, without grafting, will not consistently bear fruit or produce tasty and nutritious fruit. To give an example: once you have a healthy apple tree seedling germinated from seed, you have the first essential ingredient – a “rootstock” into which you must bud or graft buds from existing fruit-bearing quality trees, this being the “budstock” (see illustration in the Appendix). Based on this explanation it is evident that in the modern nursery production process the essential elements are precisely the same. These principles apply as well to human spiritual growth and nurture. We came into mortality as spirit children of God, received by family, exposed to the bounties of the earth and the temptations of the adversary. When we are allowed nourishment through the divine guidance of the Spirit, we then grow spiritually or we wither, based on our choices.
We can see, as with the many successes and failures in the working of the Olive Grove
(Jacob 5:32-69), there are many risks and variables to endure. With the foregoing explanation and knowing how much The Lord of the Vinyard valued His “living” trees helps us greatly in understanding why the Lord of the Vinyard was so relentless in trying not just a few, but many methods of saving His troubled trees. Naturally, he was loath to give up on his valuable (fruitful) living olive trees, so His attempting any reasonable combination of roots, branches (rootstock and budstock), fertilization or tillage would be the natural process any caring “steward” would be willing to attempt the salvation of the trees in His grove. How beautifully parallel is this process to that of our Heavenly Father and His Only Begotten Son, as they made numerous attempts, entreaties, and heavenly angelic visitations to convince the Children of Israel that the Messianic mission was happening. All this was to no avail, hence the necessary “Grafting in of the Gentiles.” Similarly, in our mortal lives, much uncertainty, risk, temptation, disaster and human error impact the outcome in both our temporal lives and spiritual labors. An additional avenue to study the Allegory is to study the botanical aspects related to the efforts made by the Steward in his attempts to save the olive trees and their ability to produce good fruit. This approach will shed additional light on the Stewards attempts that we may more fully understand that he did (as our Savior does for us, after all we can do), everything possible to salvage or save good (fruitful) trees and/or branches.
Our study of the Scriptures has given us a conceptual understanding of the allegorical
prophecies and teachings of the Grafting role of the Gentile nations in carrying forward the precious
Gospel of Jesus Christ. Israel failed to accept and carry the Gospel forward, through sin and rejection
of the Messiah, by looking beyond the mark, followed by the scattering or Diaspora of ancient Israel. In so doing, Israel became the “bad fruit” of the allegorical teaching,
The vast majority of the Church and Kingdom of God today are grafted gentiles of the
prophetic allegory. We of the Church can only fulfill this mission if we are digged and nourished by
living the commandments, bearing good fruit (3 Nephi 14:16, 20) through faithful obedience to all of God’s
laws and our responsibilities in the Kingdom. Only in this way can the Everlasting Gospel be carried to all
peoples, to include the scattered elements of Israel, as these last days of the Dispensation of the Fullness of Times progress to their conclusion. These are some of the main elements of the allegorical teachings of Zenos, as found in the Book of Jacob.
A practical examination of the botanical realities of grafting and fruit(ful) tree growing and
production will help us to deepen our understanding and convictions relating to this great teaching. The
botanical (or horticultural) aspects grafting, digging, nourishing and the harvest of pleasing
fruit are little known by most people in today’s advanced society. The following enlargements of the foregoing illustrations are an attempt to shed greater light on this side of the allegorical message. When a tree capable of bearing good fruit is desired today, these are the steps necessary in order to produce the desired result: (a) strong healthy rootstock into which a bud or grafted branch can be attached;
(b) fertile soil; (c) healthy bud stock or graft branch (plant tissue); (d) insertion of the bud under the bark of
the rootstock seedling or clean, strong joint graft, then bound or wrapped to prevent drying (death of
tissue), this is done at the appropriate point in the growing season of the year; (e) appropriate pruning (with
budding, the entire rootstock tree is cut away, just above the bud site in the Spring following budding, along with all sprouts, except the bud stock growth). From this growing bud the new good tree is created.
Many of the early Mormon settlers in the Great Basin became interested in and involved with the
production of fruit(ful) trees of many varieties. President Brigham Young encouraged the Saints to
become self-sufficient in producing most of life’s necessities--wholesome fruit from trees acclimated to
the Rocky Mountain’s Great Basin was no exception. Early pioneer settlers with some knowledge of growing fruit trees, and production from several old-world homelands, began this important activity soon after arriving in the Salt Lake Valley. For some interesting reason, many who founded fruit tree nurseries in what is now Northern Utah, came from Switzerland---certainly a beautiful, mountainous garden spot on the European Continent. Fruit tree production has existed from Southern Utah County, north through the Salt Lake Valley into Davis County (where the author’s family company engaged in nursery production in the community of Centerville, for seventy-five years, beginning about 1905). This activity extended north as far as Cache County, where much activity took place in the community of North Logan.
Thus, it can be readily seen how critical it was for the grafted-in Gentile believers to
accept the Savior, preserving the everlasting nature of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As the prophesy
unfolded, the restoration of the Gospel and its world-wide dissemination was able to take place. We can also work all our days to keep families grafted together through the sealing ordinances of the Temple and continue to teach the principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, thereby being a voice of warning, (watchman). We must also continually seek opportunities to befriend, fellowship and teach these truths to all in our fruit groves (the world), grafting them into the family of the Kingdom of God, thus making them both grafted and fruitful. Are we conducting our discipleship as spiritually-strong grafted branches of this vast and growing Kingdom of Our God? Having an understanding of these aspects of the allegory will help us see how and why, in the words of a great hymn Onward Christian Soldiers, “like a mighty army moves the Church of God.“ We must be a part of this great effort through strong discipleship, be we grafted-in or natural branches.
Having an understanding of the great part played by the grafted Gentile believers, perhaps each Latter-day Saint family should do all they can to ensure that they remain firmly grafted to God’s kingdom and the continuing establishment of Zion. The righteous family is the divinely decreed unit with eternal destiny under the patriarchal order. Thus our families must accept the challenge to endure and be a voice of warning to bring all who seek truth to the Kingdom, and as a branch be grafted into the true vine (Alma 16:17). How meaningful the counsel from our prophets that we hold our families sacred and our missionary duties and responsibilities focused on finding seekers of the truth in family units whenever possible. How beautiful and true is the appeal of the great plan of salvation, authored by the Savior of the World, with the core structure being family and patriarchal order, eternally. How could honest seekers of truth dismiss or deny the eternal bonds of familial love as God’s plan for all mankind. A signal element of the divine plan is our work to redeem our kindred dead; it is no small wonder that the dead should be identified and characterized as kindred. Through our work to “Redeem the Dead” we are assisting additional Grafting-in to the Father’s great kingdom to be accomplished.
As our continuing missionary work spreads further across the world, genealogy and family history emphasis will be more and more powerful resources of the conversion or “grafting” spirit.
Addendum:
An additional aspect of being “grafted” (or adopted) in connection with a sealing in the Temple has come to my attention. Having a great interest, based on my experiences with budding fruit trees and the related grafting of the gentiles into the House of Israel, the subject of adopted children is also of real interest to me
(especially since my wife and I have five of our fifteen Grandchildren via adoption).
Our oldest daughter, who has two adopted children, has a friend, who tells a very interesting story regarding her (the friend’s ) adopted child. This mother had taken her child to a specialist in Salt Lake City for diagnosis of a medical problem and soon was answering questions relating to “family” medical history for the non-member physician. When she explained that the child was “adopted” and therefore the medical history would not be relevant. The Doctor then asked if the child had been sealed to the parents in the Mormon Temple. When told that the child had indeed been sealed, he said that the family medical history would be relevant, since “we find that when a child has been sealed to the family they take on the medical characteristics of the adoptive family!
Note--If such a phenomenon does, in fact happen, which seems unlikely, it would make questions relating to adoption in the House of Israel more consistent and would be further evidence of the Omnipotence of our Father in Heaven. I have queried several general authorities regarding this idea and none of them have ever heard of such a thing, but knowing those from whom the story came I’m sure the doctor did say what he purportedly said. Personally, I have no idea if it has any validity, however it is interesting, but in the long run it really doesn’t matter.
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