The Fruit Orchard

Recently I have been strolling around the fruit orchard. The trees are loaded with fruit, just waiting for someone to eat of it. It is a bit unusual to see so many different fruits all in one orchard. In Florida, there are orange groves, but no apples in these groves. In California, there are vineyards full of grapes, but no cherries there. In Washington, we would find beautiful apples and cherries, but not in the same orchard.

The orchard in Ephesians 5:8-9 speaks of the Fruit of the Light. This fruit is goodness, righteousness, and truth. The Root of this tree is the Light of the World, Jesus! Without the Root, there is no Fruit!! I can't just pick and choose this fruit, when I am grafted into this Root, the fruit will be there. I am washed in the Blood of Jesus, and then am clothed with the robe of Righteousness. He sees me through His rightness. Within myself, there is no goodness. Only through Jesus, is there goodness. and truth.

There is another fruit orchard found in Galatians 5:22-23. This one is the fruit of attitudes. This seems more like a vineyard, where the grapes are processed in the winepress. It is truly a daily process in my life, where God "squeezes" out more and more of self. Read the list: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Just when I think I am doing fine, then comes the testing. Someone says something that hurts my feelings, and then come unlovely thoughts, not so kind. Oh I may not say them, but they are "in" there. God takes me back to the winepress, and presses in on those things that need to be taken out.

As we grow in Jesus, as we learn more and more of His ways and how to walk faithfully in Him on a day to day basis. The fruit becomes sweeter, not because of who I am but because of Who He is, and who He has made me through Him.

Reminds me of the Garden of Eden, how Adam and Eve walked with God in the Garden. What peaceful walks that must have been. They did not know the ugliness of rotten fruit until after disobedience.

As I stroll through the fruit orchard with God, my desire is to see more fruit in my life that is in His likeness. May the fruit people see in me, exemplify the Fruit of the Light.

His Grace Abounds
Barb