Seasonal Fruit
By Elisa Morgan
Plump orange pumpkins. Crisp apples. Long-necked squash. Zucchini out the wazoo. What's in season in your produce department?
Sure, with imports from around the globe and ongoing greenhouse growing seasons, we can enjoy just about any variety of any fruit, veggie or even flower in any month of the year. But as Fall rounds into reality, certain species become available in our everyday.
A few mornings ago, I read Psalm 1 yet again. It's been a favorite for years. I found myself turning to it on a day of meandering feelings. Am I making a difference? Is God using me? Do my efforts for him matter?
Don't you have days where you wonder just what "fruit" is in season in your offering? Like any at all?
The psalm begins with the possible progression into awfulness where we might slip into wickedness:
Blessed is the one
who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
or sit in the company of mockers ...
Ugh ... Might this be the cause of my doldrums? Am I walking with the wicked? Standing with the sinners? Sitting with mockers?
I don't think so ...
Then comes the cheery promise of healthy reproduction when we plant ourselves by the fresh waters of a relationship with God:
... but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,
and who meditates on his law day and night.
I've learned that "delighting in the law of the Lord" isn't just keeping the Ten Commandments or some other moralistic effort to be "good." The psalmist is really encouraging a continual dependency on God - day and night.
Okay. That sounds like my normal try-to-stay-connected-to-Jesus posture. Or at least the posture I want to lean towards more and more in my daily life.
I read on ...
That person (the one who tries to be connected to Jesus)
is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither - whatever they do prospers.
There it is: ... which yields its fruit in season ... Bing! Thought for the day: Fruit comes in seasons. Pumpkins, apples, squash and zucchini in the Fall. Strawberries and cantaloupe in the summer.
When I stay connected in relationship with Jesus, my leaf won't wither (even though it might age orange to brown and brown to gray), what I do will prosper (eventually) and I'll yield fruit in season. Maybe not every single day of every single month of every single year. But in season, when ripe and ready, fruit will come.
What season are you living today? Fruitless or fruitful? When we stay planted by the stream of sustenance that is our relationship with Jesus, every season is eventually fruitful.
"I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit - fruit that will last ..." John 15:16
Elisa Morgan is an author and speaker and the cohost of Discover the Word and contributor to Our Daily Bread. Her latest book, When We Pray Like Jesus, was recently released. Her other books include The Beauty of Broken, Hello, Beauty Full, and She Did What She Could. Connect with Elisa @elisa_morgan on Twitter, and @elisamorganauthor on Facebook and Instagram.