Sometimes God convicts us in the most unusual ways. Walking this life of faith often allows me to be vulnerable and willing to learn a lesson from Him, when I least expect it.
This weekend my family went to a local farm and did our annual peach picking. Growing up on the coast, I never had the luxury of going to pick fruit in the warm summer weather.
When I moved to the Willamette Valley 20 years ago, I was thrilled with all the delicious fruit available in the summer. Being a gardener and farm girl at heart, orchards and farms speak to my heart.
We plodded through the orchard , in the heat, with our boxes. Turns out the peaches for picking were as far away from the stand as one could walk. But there was something calming about that walk. So quiet, so serene, and so beautiful. I chose to ignore the incessant whining from my children 🙂
Once we started picking the peaches, the process was over before we could blink. But we did spend a good bit of time laughing and filling those boxes in between bites that left juice running down our arms. Somehow the drudgery of that walk was a distant memory.
As we picked the trees, which were completely loaded, we came across an interesting sight.
In certain places you could see fruit on the branches starting to rot. In some cases completely rotten.
It was the craziest thing. But this one image really grabbed my attention.
This poor peach had clung to the branch desperately, and literally shriveled up, and become a carcass of itself.
As I studied this sight I wondered what caused this peach to stay clinging to that branch. Why didn’t it just fall off? What kept it from rotting like the others? How did it not mold or attract bugs?
A verse in John came to my mind. John 10:10 says:
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.
I have come that they may have life, and they may have it abundantly “.
This peach, still clinging to that branch had life going to it. But to have life abundantly, well that is a different story. It is a game changer. It is what we look like from the inside out. It determines if we are producing fruit or shriveling up.
Tapping into the life that God has given to us, is all up to me and how I choose to work at it. The work is hard, not always thrilling, and sometimes downright frustrating. But the benefits are well worth the effort.
Paul talks about what the fruit of the spirit looks like.
Galatians 5:22-23
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control…”
So I was left to ask myself, what does the world see? Am I showing healthy fruit that bears His image, or am I allowing myself to shrivel up while still clinging to the branch?
He desires us to have life to the fullest and promises that He will be there every step of the way!!
Love to you!!
Thanks for the good words!