This summer we were living in abundance.

I mean some serious abundance of blueberries. We have 14 bushes and with the earlier rains in the late spring early summer they were busting forth with some blue goodness.

In the early stages…it was fun. We would every early morning grab our music and our buckets and spend hours picking. We fixed blueberry cobbler, smoothies, muffins. We would cheerfully give anyone who stopped by blueberries for their table.

Then the excitement wore thin. It wasnt as much fun to go pick blueberries. It was more of a chore. It felt overwhelming because there were so many and if we didn’t get them then the crows would. It wore us out going to pick buckets and buckets of those lush blueberries. We ate blueberries till we thought we were going to turn blue.

I will admit that many of those days no matter how hot or buggy it was while picking, I had an excitement come over me like I have experienced before. I was giddy when it started to happen. I wanted to stop picking and write so that I would remember every piece of it.

It was that whisper. Again.

It was that simple message of truth that I so want to hang on to each day. The truth that only comes when God speaks to you about what you are doing. That Holy Spirit voice.

He said that day many things. None of which I forgot.

“Look Amy! This is fruit from your labor. My fruit that I have brought to you.”

“But I didn’t do anything. Well…ok I got the sprinkler fixed that hit these blueberries. But it was that heavenly water Lord that made them so big and beautiful. That water is filled with such incredible nutrients that these blueberries needed.”

“That is kinda how I do that with you Amy. When you come to the Water source and drink, I fill you up with my Goodness, My Spirit and My Truth. Then you go out to produce fruit. Big fruit. Sometimes fruit that is so plentiful that you don’t see it. So much that it is hard to contain in a bucket.  Sit with me Amy. Learn from my ways. Hear my Words. I am still here.”

The blessings are plenty. Many days they are too much to contain in my bucket. I even feel guilty some days because I know the hardship many are going through. I don’t understand.

Genesis 1:11 Then God said, “Let the land sprout with vegetation—every sort of seed-bearing plant, and trees that grow seed-bearing fruit. These seeds will then produce the kinds of plants and trees from which they came.” And that is what happened.”

Leviticus 26:4 “I will send you the seasonal rains. The land will then yield its crops, and the trees of the field will produce their fruit.”

Many days I have to remember looking all around those blueberries and thinking, “Really? I have this much fruit?”

“Yes, Amy. This many blessings are surrounding you because of my grace. My grace has carried you through some stinking stuff. Stuff that you would have not gone through. Circumstances that didn’t seem fair. But remember, I waste nothing. I use everything for My Glory. That is what has produced this fruit all around you.”

 

John 15:5 “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.”

 

{This post was linked to Five Minute Friday but as you can see it didn’t happen till Saturday so we’ll call it “Six Minute Saturday!”}