Abundance -

 

Apples in abundance. Apple butter. Apple cake. Apple pie. Apple cider? Apple cheese? Apple juice ?

We have four types of apple tree. Two are small and yield a few delicate, tasty eating apples. The Bramley cooking apple tree is big and loaded, as is the one which I think could be Golden Delicious.

If you want any apples, please speak to me!

Most of the apples are not perfect. Many are spotted, which makes them unsuitable for storing but perfect for using right now. Some have bruises from having fallen; some have brown spots; some have been attacked by wasps.

The fields are white unto the harvest, Jesus tells his friends. But where are the workers to bring it in?

I do not have a gift of evangelism. I become knotted up if I have to explain the finer points of faith. I am more able to write what I believe than to say it. I hope I am living it.

In my lack of confidence, I am prone to excuse and explain my silence as I look at non-believers through a lens of judgmentalism. Perhaps I conclude that they have been so bruised and hurt that they are hardened to receiving my words. Perhaps I think their attitudes and actions reveal an apathy towards the saving grace of Christ. Maybe I suspect that their inner core is so damaged by parasitic worms that it will take more than I can say to bring healing and restoration.

Father, you are the gardener. May I be open to your voice today, alert to your guidance and obedient to your commands to follow you into the fields and reach out to pull in the harvest. May I truly trust you to be enough, to take the little I can offer and transform it into all that is needed.

Jesus declared that he was here to give us the abundant life. As we give ourselves to him, he transforms us. He can take the most bruised of us and make us like apple butter, spicy and warming. He can peel away our spots of injury and neglect and help us become like apple sauce, basic and nourishing for all. He can cut out the wounds inflicted by others and make us sweet like apple pie.

Thank you, Lord, that you have taken my imperfect life and are making me like new.

May my wholehearted trust in you express itself in joyful gratitude which nourishes the spiritually hungry and draws them into your orchard today.