Written in Heaven

I love spring. It is probably my favorite time of the year. I think that correlates closely to how much I absolutely despise winter. I can’t stand cold weather, I hate snow, I hate ice, I hate how snow turns black after being mixed with whatever is on our roads…I digress.

My favorite part about spring is the new life springing up all around. I love the Magnolia trees especially. The flowers that bloom off of those trees bring forth a burst of color into a world that (due to winter) has only been seen in shades of gray for months. The fragrance that comes with those trees is so fresh and new I can’t get enough of it.

Along with the Magnolia trees, the grass begins to grow, other trees gain their green leaves and flowers are in bloom. It’s as though the earth has awoken from hibernation and things are getting back to the way they should be.

One of the challenges of the Christian life is to live as though you’re a Magnolia tree in bloom all year long. The Bible refers to the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives as fruit. For the Magnolia tree, the fruit is the beautiful blooms that produce life, light, color, fragrance, and hope. I say hope in all seriousness because these blooms have a timely way of hitting right when we feel like we cannot stand another winter outburst. In our situation, we produce fruit that hopefully accomplishes the same thing to those around us. Ultimately the fruit that God wants to produce through His Holy Spirit is fruit that bursts onto the scene much like those Magnolia blooms: they show up right when we’re rubbing elbows with a person who is hopeless and feels they don’t know what they’re going to do if one thing goes wrong.

It can be tough to produce this fruit. It only becomes tough though, when we put the onus on us to bear the fruit. When we do this, then the fruit bearing becomes about us rather than the One who’s working through us. It becomes easy to bear fruit when it’s about saying “Yes!” when God requires it and walking faithfully through Him.

My prayer today is that my life would produce fruit that would provide hope and joy to those around me. I pray yours does as well.