The Harvest

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My favorite, most delicious apple tree is so laden for harvest, much of what it worked toward has fallen to the ground.

The birds and caterpillars and little chipmunks and critters get their share too. We not only grow organically we share with God's creations.

Our ground is full of earthworms trenching new avenues of loam and waterways, lightening bugs that flutter about with their lanterns as they dance through the night, and caterpillars, working toward becoming next years butterflies to brighten our days. Even the ants clear away our debris and droppings and call it good. It all vanishes into the earth by next spring, creating the new earth and new life that will bless our children and grandchildren to come.


*This particular little tree worked so hard and had so many apples, it had to have pylons attached to hold up its branches. Now it is down to needing just one friend to hold up its most heavily laden branch. Many of the apples have been picked.

She will require heavy pruning this year though before the winter, to remove the damaged and weak branches that she received from working so hard to produce so much bounty and blessing for us; so next year will be her day of rest while she grows the new branches that produce new fruit the following year. We need a day of rest too, just like our little tree. Otherwise we can't produce the fruit of blessings in our lives.

*Sometimes I sense how fragile we are, like the little apple tree, and how we all need others to help hold us up so we can stand and so we can bare good fruit.

Life is hard, but God is good. In our weakness He gave us each other to share our burdens, hold each other up, and to delight in each other's company.

The joy of harvest and sharing our labors and our fruitfulness always brings more joy and memories to our lives that bless us forever. Friendship is gift as clearly as the apples off of a tree.

Yet, sometimes, the sheer weight of all that we are holding up is greater than we bare. Sometimes we all need a friend or friends to hold up our arms and lives with us, those to encourage, supporters, those who will care about what we are trying so hard to accomplish when it all weighs more than we can sustain. Someone to come along side and take hold up some of our burden. I am glad we need each other. I am glad I am Christian too. Both make life so much more fun.

We have beautiful deep purple grapes this year that I will pick after the first heavy frost. Then they will be at their sweetest and most flavorful.

They are Concord grapes. We have only one vine, but we planted a small vineyard this year when all the grapes went on sale in July. I hope they make it through the winter.

These are the kind you think of in Welch's Grape Juice that comes frozen in a can that you add water to. The fruit is so beautiful to look at in the fall and so delicious in the middle of winter.

In the middle of winter it reminds me of all the beauty I savored during the summer as I eat my breakfast and swig down that luscious grape drink on a cold winter morning. I saw this day, way back when I planted that one little vine years ago.
Part of what made it so wonderful tasting was knowing how few quarts of juice set waiting on the pantry shelf. It's seasonal like sweetcorn or strawberries. Something special unto its day. *That's why we planted a a dozen more vines this year. We want to extend the days we get to enjoy it. We already look ahead in the hope of a bountiful harvest 4 years from now.

You, my friends, are like my fruit. You are the apple pies made up in advance, ready to pop in & pull out when you drop in. I can see those days even now as I prepare the pies. That is the real fruit. The joy of sharing and fellowshipping together. Looking ahead to the days we will spend together over a mini-feast of flavors togethers, when the trees look dead, but knowing the life that is hidden away in each and every branch as we munch away on the fruit pies that were made from those dead looking branches. It's all worth the effort and so are you. Thanks for dropping in. Never look at what you see when it all looks dried up and dead. Believe for what you cannot yet see, and dwell in its fruit. May you be refreshed as you ponder the wonders and beauty of this life.

To think on PIE is to think on God and His love and kind provisions for us if we are willing to harvest and protect what he has given us. It is to see out ahead and share with love and fellowship this precious earth's bounty.

May you be blessed today.

Think on apple pie and remember how loved you are by God.