It’s almost summer, when locally grown fruit starts to become available.  Maybe it’s watermelon, or strawberries, or peaches.  (You’re starting to salivate now, aren’t you?)

I’d have a hard time picking just one favorite, although a juicy, ripe cantaloupe has to be near the top of the list.  We actually try to grow fruit in our backyard each year.  Tomatoes.  Set aside for the moment the age old argument of whether or not they’re fruit or vegetables.  The fact is they’re downright awesome on a BLT in late summer when they’re just picked out of the backyard.

The last couple years have been a major disappointment for the Tindle family “fruit farm.”  After prepping the soil and purchasing the plants and carefully protecting them from the rabbits.  After watering and weeding and waiting…we got almost nothing.  The plants hardly grew, and produced a few scraggly tomatoes.  We expected more.  Why?  Because tomato plants are SUPPOSED to produce fruit.  Lots of fruit!  Nevertheless, we’re trying again this year, using the advice from the expert at the local nursery.  Here’s hoping for a bumper crop!

Even if you don’t have a garden, you may find it interesting to know that followers of Jesus are compared to a garden.  Yep…and not a flower garden, but a garden that produces fruit.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  Against such things there is no law. (Galatians 5:22-23)

Read that list again.  Slowly.  There are nine different types of fruit mentioned.

Which one is the most attractive to you?

Why?  (Really think about this one)

Chances are your favorite fruit in this list is one which God is desiring to produce in you.

Your life is like a garden, designed to produce fruit.  What kind of fruit will you be bearing in three months?  What can you do NOW in order to ensure that your life doesn’t become a small, scraggly, fruitless one?

When you get to the end of this summer, will your life be an attractive, nourishing source of fruit for anyone?  That’s God’s plan.  What’s your plan?

-Pastor Mark