Seasonal Fruit

There’s just something inviting about having a bowl of seasonal fruit on your table, isn’t there? Is it the colours, the different sizes, or the incredibly delightful taste you experience when you bite into, for example, a strawberry 🍓 or a peach 🍑, or a crunchy apple?

I love, love ❤️ all fruit. Oh, what joy as I pop a big purple or green grape into my mouth, and I simply cannot resist a fresh, cold piece of mango 🥭.

There was a time in the history of creation when man walked in the Garden of Eden with God, and we ate much fruit. I can’t begin to imagine what that might have looked like. However, we must also remember that it was looking at a piece of fruit that became so tempting that we just had to have it, which also brought about our downfall. (Food for thought.)

There’s a story in the Bible about seasonal fruit.

Jesus has had a long day of ministering, and He sees in the distance a fig tree. He says to Himself, I will refresh myself with a sweet fig, only to find that when He looks amongst the branches and leaves, there is no fruit for Him to eat. He is disappointed — so much so that He says to the fig tree, “Because you have no fruit, yet it is the season for fruit, you will now never produce anything.” Ouch. That’s harsh, isn’t it?

But it’s these moments in Scripture that keep me pondering 🤔.

The Bible tells you and me that without Jesus in our lives, we can produce nothing. He says, “I am the vine, you are the branches, and My Father is the gardener.” Do you have a garden? Every gardener knows that to produce the best fruit or the best blooms, you have to prune the tree.

I’m sensing in my spirit a season of fruitfulness — which also means a season of pruning. Pruning can be painful. He cuts off any branch that’s not producing fruit, and it’s thrown into the fire 🔥 to be burnt 🥵. If I didn’t understand the Father’s heart, I might lean the other way and think God is mean or cruel.

I’m laid up at present with a torn collateral ligament. I’m walking with a limp, and it’s painful 😣. My knee is swollen, and I have to wear a brace. I’m unable to do all that I normally do, and I could give in to frustration — but I think I have another lesson to learn. Please pray I will heal quickly; the doctor said 6–8 weeks.

I’ve heard it said that fruitfulness in God follows intimacy with God, and I have nothing but time to give.

🥭 🍎 🍇 🍊 🥝

“I am the true vine, and My Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in Me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit He prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.”
John 15:1–2