Nevermind the little weed leafies. I'm weeding those out tomorrow! The big leaves are the ones that count. :-)
Onto my next discovery: I have a pomegranate bush! I was all set to pull out this scraggly shrub next to my driveway because it is EXACTLY where one would open the door to get out of the car.
Where it is placed, I can't park two cars at the end of my driveway side by side because the driver on the left would be stuck in the car. I asked the landlord if I could take it out, he said it was perfectly okay with him. After that, in my mind the ugly thing was already gone. I no longer saw it or paid any attention to it. Until about a week or so ago.
It started budding these strange things that looked like some kind of crazy orange pepper. When I suggested such, my husband laughed at me, and said that we'd just pinch a piece off and bring it to my mother to see if she could tell us what it is. He assured me it was absolutely NOT a pepper though. Hmph.
So, we brought a bud over once it blossomed into this five-petaled, papery bloom. Yeah. She didn't have a clue. So we spend thirty minutes on Google Images searching the term "orange flowering shrub bud," sifting through a hundred or so images of orange flowering shrubs. I finally arrived at an image that sort of looked like what I had in my hand, so I clicked on it. Turns out, its a pomegranate bush!
My jaw dropped! The fruit ripens from the base of the bud. It swells at the bottom into the big giant fruit you see at your local grocer or farmstand. The fruit usually ripen from August to September. I'm super excited!!!
I couldn't help but remember an article I read in January from InTouch Magazine, titled "Ripening for Harvest." (Do not nitpick my citations please LOL - between my literature, psychology, and nursing classes, I have all my rules mixed up!) Read the article here. The gist: every season is important for bearing fruit. Fruit doesn't ripen all year. Apple trees don't bear apples in December, pumpkin vines in May. At the time, I was in a deep winter. Cold, dark, lonely and no end in sight. My brain knew that it wouldn't last forever, but it was a daily (and at times hourly) battle with my heart to remain hopeful. God's promises often were repeated like a mantra, if only to try to try and breach the infinite chasm between my heart and mind. God seemed so far away (or so Satan wanted me to believe) and when I read this article, the sun managed to break through the clouds just long enough to warm me up enough to keep praying faithfully and trusting in Him. I stared at the bloom in my hand and remembered the ugliness that it was - skinny, barren-appearing, tall, and all together in my way - and thought of what it is now: a full, lush, and budding fruit shrub not quite yet ripe for the picking, but promising us of what's to come.
Some seasons in life just plain suck. If you think about it though, all four seasons have drawbacks. Rainy spring days. Hot, humid, windless summer afternoons. Blustery and mud-colored autumn mornings. Endless, frigid winter nights. And yet, they all have beauty: the blooms in spring, swimming and barbeques in summer, brilliant autumn leaves and hayrides, the glistening of snow on Christmas morning.
Jesus tells us that if we remain in Him, and He in us, we will bear fruit. The illustration and comparison to life and fruit is not an accident. Nothing can continuously bear fruit. All things need a season of dormancy for growth and renewal. I find so much peace in that. Romans 8:28 says that all things are used for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. You can guarantee that God will use ALL of it to bear fruit. Even our seasons of coldness, endless rain, and darkness. Jesus will make something beautiful, rest easy. Nothing lasts forever.
I hope whatever season you are in, that you trust in God and His perfect timing.
God bless you and your nest
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