Our fruit trees didn’t produce last year. It was like, in the middle of a nationwide pandemic, the trees blossomed, in anticipation of fruit, but then remained still…
The flowers wide open, eventually browned, then fell to the ground.
We didn’t know what was happening.
For over a dozen years, our trees have produced crops; apples, Japanese pears, cherries of a different varieties.
But this past year, something changed.
As the blossoms sit, our hopes for a year were crippled by lockdowns, promises of reopening, the questions of “when” and “if”.
Before we knew it, a whole year passed, and not only our own trees, but the fruit of many of our hopes and dreams, vanished, in what seemed like a hard, fruitless summer.
It’s a year later.
Those same trees just opened to pink buds, hopeful for what is to come.
Yet, my mind questions the goodness of God, and when and if His promises of “much fruit” are still coming.
To the religious, “questioning God” may sound synical or faithless. But I think we would be remise if we didn’t say, when ground shakes, lives remain still in holy lockdowns…
It can be hard for all of us, to not wonder if God is still there…
And will He still do what He promised, even post heartbreak or isolation?
Elijah seems like the king of isolation. He hid, as God commanded, near the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan River.
There, God fed him with food brought by ravens, every morning and every evening.
God didn’t hide Elijah to punish him, but to purify him…
To teach him, there is strength from quiet dependence on the One who created nations.
Elijah learned dependence before the fire from heaven burned up the alter, ousting the false prophets of Baal, a system that revolved around power and money.
I’ve seen a lot of castles fall this past year. My guess is, you have to.
Performances failed, organizations crippled and leaders crumbling under secular authoritarianism.
Too many tumbled from their self-made alters. The proud ousted and exposed, uncovered from their white-washed worlds of the past.
“For it is the time [destined] for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not respect or believe or obey the gospel of God?” (1 Peter 4:17)
We can pretend to other people, but we can’t hide from God.
God is washing away, like water covering the earth, everything that doesn’t look like Him.
Some might say it’s hard, but others see the coming storm, the gentle grace God gives us, and they let Him purify their hearts.
Will we have faith when He comes? (Luke 18:8)
A friend of ours brought two large bee colonies; square boxes where bees find flowers to pollinate during the day, before nesting at night. They had been in a city, but there was no room for them.
They could have been on raw land, but the bears would destroy them.
It only seemed logical to place these two colonies on the very back of our property, out where others couldn’t see them, yet the bee’s had ample space and time to get nectar from everything around them.
The thought of having bees here was two-fold. First, there was a concern that the bees might sting us.
We don’t like pain. We run from hard. Not just as individuals, but often even as Christians.
We fluff up our lives, pad our time, insulate ourselves from the thing that might sting, but also the very things that might bless us with fruit and honey.
The other blessing is that natural, local grown honey, has healing properties.
It helps with seasonal allergies, which are rampant in the Northwest. It reduces colds over the lifespan, it’s filled with antioxidants, helps sore throats and promotes gut health.
The list is almost endless.
So, why would we avoid the possible occassional sting, just to protect ourselves, losing the given benefits that come with presence?
Better yet, baskets and baskets of fruit will abound, if we have bees to pollunate our fruit trees.
Bees aren’t just a “nice idea”. We actually need bees, to bless us, and balance out the ecosystem that consists of necessary pollunation.
And I greive, as I open my door this morning. 108 degrees they say, here in a region where we like mediocre, safe, temperate weather, religion, and communication between friends.
Some say we are cold, easily offended.
But, I wonder if it’s because we have wrapped ourselves in safe bubbles, and don’t let the sting of this life give us a healthy respect for what is necessary to grow us.
And why did God make all of nature with both blessing and pain?
Why do rose’s thorns both protect the flower, but prick us simotaneously?
Blackberries are eaten, but they also can sting? Chicken give eggs, yet can peck usk until we bleed?
Is no gift given without caution?
Fire warms, but it also burns. Water nourishes, but it also can drown you.
Is God humbling us by showing us, we need this balance, so our greediness won’t ruin us?
Was Elijah sent to that Ravin, fed and tended to by God, because God needed him humble before He faced the prophets of Baal?
And aren’t we prone to wander, likened and given to built towers to ourselves, like in the days of Babel, when left alone without these “cautions?”
I see the tiny fruit bursting forth on our pear tree outside our door. The one, where we walk to our cars and pluck a sweet treat right off the tree.
I see blossoms on the cherry trees, last year heavily prunned.
And I know the cutting isn’t punishment, the tearing away of everything not producing, isn’t just judgement. It is grace.
Strength sent to unnecessary limbs are clipped away, which pushed that energy towards that which is producing.
We need bees. We need pollunation in this season.
We need to trust the gentle stinging, and replace what we have been missing, knowing the Lord has goodness waiting…
And sometimes embracing what He has, requires us to leaving our most recent catch, all our flesh has attained…
We must walk away from that which is empty and useless and step towards what will benefit us, knowing He holds it all.
What has the pasture of your life been needing? What is missing?
Are you running from things that might sting you, but things that also in His goodness will bless you?
Do you allow the trimming of your fruit trees? Or are you letting, long, half-dead, gangling limbs remain because they are comfortable and familiar?
We need to run to His goodness.
Only there, in His presence is everything we are looking for.
Judgement is being released, and we have one chance to surrender towards Jesus. Surrender, not because He is mean, but because He knows…
The great battle is coming.
The battle where Baal will fall, once and for all.
And all the world will see His goodness.
Where His bride is made perfect and white.
And life will rise from death, once and for all.
But, will we have faith when He comes?
