You know that summer is here when suddenly your box of produce from the local farmers goes from slim pickings to ALL THIS FRUIT! It's the first fruits of the year, and these farmers spent all of last year pruning and tending and planting so that this summer we could enjoy the harvest.
What a wonderful picture in nature that God has given us to reflect the spiritual realm. When we sow to the spirit, we will reap spiritual fruit. It always means lots of hard work and discipline pruning away what is useless and sinful in our lives while simultaneously planting a desire for God based on all that is true about Him. And all this done under faith that something will come out of it all. Then you wait through winter, and it's slim pickings for awhile. But then God causes the sun to shine and the rain to pour, and suddenly you see sprouts and blooms and suddenly the fruit starts coming in yummy and juicy. "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control." (Gal. 5:22)
This year, we have the first apricots, peaches, and cherries of the season (the citrus has been around for awhile already). And we got a fresh bouquet of chamomile, too! Don't you love how you can see the faithfulness of God in our food?
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