Strawberry Picking

This week Eliana and I were able to enjoy our first visit to a you-pick strawberry field. We had such a great time! You'll be able to quickly see from the photos that Eliana enjoying eating the strawberries more than the actual picking of them. We picked for two hours and not once did she complain. In fact, she often commented at how much she loved to do it.

Many years ago my parents had a small piece of land (garden size) that was shared with other people and we had our very own garden. However, I wasn't raised on a farm and I don't know a great deal about when to plant, what to plant, and when to harvest. One day we will "go for it" and start our own garden. Right now, our "garden" consists of one pineapple plant that may produce fruit this year and some sunflowers that we just planted last week.

The more I think about the time we spent strawberry picking, the more God has used it to convict me. We all know the verses, but these two phrases have come to mind multiple times since Tuesday..."The harvest truly is great..." (Luke 10:2) and "The harvest truly is plenteous..." (Mt. 9:37).

The strawberry field that we visited was truly plentiful with fruit. Some of the fruit was overripe. Some of the fruit looked perfect until we tried to pick it (rotten on the underside). There was under-ripe fruit that needed more time, but much of the fruit was perfect and ready to be picked. We were so excited about going to pick the strawberries and the time we invested doing it was not an issue. Though we could have been overwhelmed at the size of the field and amount of fruit waiting to be picked, we picked one fruit at a time. When we realized that our buckets and containers were full, we didn't want to leave. We even made plans to go back today but learned yesterday that the field had been plowed under. It was too late!

For me, all of this has reminded me of the theme for our church this year...Sowing the Seed. There is a harvest much more important than strawberries - a harvest with ripe fruit. If I can get excited about fruit that will only last until it is eaten, then I should be ecstatic to pick fruit that will last an eternity. If I am willing to invest time into some that has no eternal value, then I should be more than willing to invest time in reaching others for Christ before the fields are plowed under, before it is too late!

I may never see gardening the same again.