Fruity.

There is just something special about walking up to a fruit tree and picking off some delicious ripened fruit. There’s no feeling like that. We had a fig tree, a grapefruit tree, and a pecan tree in our own backyard growing up. We enjoyed being able to eat fruit right off our own trees. At just the right season I can take a walk around our church neighborhood and there is a huge fig tree with branches hanging way out into the sidewalk full of figs. Yes, I take a few and enjoy them on my walk. It’s so refreshing and energizing.

People are like fruit trees. We are either barren, bearing good fruit, or bearing bad fruit. When we stay close to the Lord in our journey of faith we are able to produce good fruit. Peace, love, joy, kindness, gentleness, patience, self-control, forgiveness, and more! In fact we can sometimes produce so much fruit that it naturally overflows to others who are blessed as well.

Likewise we can bear bad fruit. Hate, selfishness, meanness, criticism, lust, envy, strife, war, indifference, and much more. Just like the good fruit our bad fruit will also overflow and affect others near us especially those we love the most. When we disconnect or are never connected in the first place to the Lord Jesus Christ we will bear bad fruit or we will remain barren. 

Barrenness comes when we don’t stay connected to Jesus long enough to draw spiritual nutrients in order to bear good fruit. We are intermittent in our relationship with him. Jesus promised his disciples that if we remain in him we will bear fruit, much fruit, and fruit that will remain! Apart from Jesus we can do nothing. Let’s plan to stay connected in 2021. Now let’s go be fruity!