Parents, When Life Gives You Cherries**... Words From COVID 19 quarantine

 Parents, when life gives you cherries. When I was a young preteen my family took a several day trip in a large RV with a wonderful family with whom we had taken beach vacations. This was quite the adventure because there were 10 of us in this giant wobble-box on wheels. The family was gracious and patient especially when one or all of the 6 kids got tired or upset about something or we couldn't stop laughing from our shenanigans. We saw beautiful scenery from Tennessee to Colorado, taking in sights and adventures at National Parks and enjoying cool mountain weather in mid-summer. We saw beautiful plains with “wavin' wheat (that) can sure smell sweet when the wind comes right behind the rain,” and we saw mountains that jutted straight up out of the plain with snow caps and rugged beauty. We saw buffalo and antelope, deer, elk, and meese, or mooses, or just moose. The trip had been carefully planned to take in as many sights as possible. Each family would take turns sleeping in the RV and the other in a hotel or lodge close by. One camp where we stopped was a cherry grove. You could pick any cherries you wanted and it happened to be cherry season! So, we climbed on top of the RV and picked a gallon or two of cherries all the while stuffing our mouths full of the red deliciousness. Our shirts and hands were stained, but our tummies were full and our hearts were happy. We hit the road again the next morning for the next state and new excursion. As we neared the next border we read signs saying that no fruit could cross the state line for fear of transferring fruit tree diseases. So, with a large amount of fresh picked cherries we were sad to possibly have to throw them out. My mother didn’t bat an eye, she just started pitting the cherries and making pie crusts from scratch as we traveled toward the border inspection station several miles away. Feeding people was one of the ways she expressed her love. She was under the gun with a short time limit like on a modern day cooking show. As we neared the state line, she never lost focus but just kept making pies. She popped them in the oven just in time and all the inspectors found as they asked us if we had any fresh produce was the wonderful sweet smell of fresh baked cherry pies wafting through the driver’s window, and a smiling “no, no fresh fruits here.” We had plenty of dessert for the 10 of us after dinner at our new destination. We had many more great memories with family and friends in a giant wobbly bus seeing our beautiful country on that trip.

As we connect with Jesus, He gives us spiritual fruit to be enjoyed by His people in our community. That fruit is to be used to encourage and build up the Family of those who belong to God and those who are not yet a part of God’s Family. (“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control...”(Galatians 5:22–23) During COVID 19 restrictions, opportunities to share that spiritual fruit can seem limited. It’s like we have gallons of cherries, but no way to use them before they have to be thrown out or rot because they can’t be enjoyed by those we need to share them with. We may have to start using our creative gifts in different ways to share that fruit with other people. We may need to let people enjoy the sweet smells and tastes of fresh baked pies rather than fresh fruit right off the tree. We may be tempted to just give up and forget about how important it is to bring the fruit to the people of God. The Apostle Paul wanted to make sure the church in Galatia didn’t give up and let their gifts and fruit go to waste when things got tough. It may have been really difficult to keep doing the right thing when the challenges came along. He tells them “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.” Galatians 6:9-10 (NIV) If we have some fruit that is about to go to waste, we need to remember there may be another way of sharing it with people. We can still show people that we love them even if the ways we used to do it may not work anymore.

Hang in there people! God is with us! I’m praying for you all!