Fruit

An early morning tomorrow- a mission to begin. I wonder how this first mission trip will change this 13 year-old boy turning man? I will need to be content with the few scraps of rememberings he will share when he returns... the frustrations of parents desperate for knowledge.

Matthew 7:18-20 (New International Version)
A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.

to be grateful for:

65. tiny footprints on pavement
66. bobbed hair on four year olds
67. date night
68. shared 12:40 a.m. confidences
69. the intimacy of watching fireworks with a crowd
70. siblings encouraging eachother with song
71. warm sterling silver in hand
72. the Chesapeake Bay's riches
73. picking crabs with family and friends
74. exploring with your kids
75. library drive-thrus
76. in-laws who drive to emergency rooms
77. glowing sunburned cheeks on the playground at dusk
78. rasberry bushes by the side of the road
79. the beautiful perfection on blueberries
80. the sound of bluberries being harvested into plastic buckets
81. dancing and singing to one's husband at a wedding
82. the sweetness of witnessing new love
83. raindrops preserved in grass

My eyes weren't even open yet and I knew something was different.

In the quiet was suspended a green-grey calm. The world seemed somehow more open, more receptive than when I had gone to bed. The rain had come. Outside the bows of the maple dipped the green of her frock low in a graceful cursty while the coarse brown grass stood austerely pointing accusingly up at the dove gray clouds . The patient black-eyed susans nodded their heads ruefully in an "I-told-you-so" way.

Just as the trees were beginning to lose their leaves, the farmers to shake their heads over the failing corn, the tomatoes to cease making blooms the rain came. Just in time and gently the downfall replenished the earth and the hopes of those in it.

Isn't this how God works so often? In our lives here in the world we live in desperate dust-bowls of circumstances thirsting for rest, or justice, or fulfillment. Just at the time when we can't seem to do it on our own any longer we look up- placing our situations and pains into our Father's hands and he has his way with us and replenishes us with his care and Spirit.