This morning this small piece of scripture has me thinking about how we live our lives and how we go about producing good fruit.  The implication right off of the bat is that what you put into it all, you receive.  I do not believe that there is some inherent qualities of a good tree and a bad tree but what surrounds it as well.  I believe that God is good but I also believe that we assign to God what we expect.  My co pastor, Mark Pederson, has lately been talking quite a bit of what we expect from God.  If we look and expect a mean, awful, judgmental God, then that is what we will see and what we will assign to God.  It is also what we will expect from scripture to tell us.  But if we look to God as all loving, grace filled and good…then we will see that from our scripture and in life. 

 

Is that perhaps what Jesus is telling us about who we are well? If we look towards others and ourselves as good trees, will we produce good fruit? Or if we expect evil from others and from ourselves, will we produce bad fruit?  How does that change our perceptions of how we interact with each other? What if (within reason of course) we treated people as producers of good fruit? As vines instead of brambles? 

 

So today I am looking to a few examples of people who live this out…especially my grandparents. Today some of my family is gathering to help move some of my grandparents things to a retirement facility.  They are starting (at 92 and 93) to really need a little extra care.  And today will be hard.  And today will probably include tears from all of us since they are moving out of their home of almost 60 years.  But today will also be one full of family ties and expectations.  And my grandparents have always been grandparents that expect people to produce good fruit. I have never known them to be otherwise.  My grandma broke her hip over a month ago and this was the scene when they saw each other…

 

 

The conversation was about how blessed they were to have family surrounding them.  The conversations were not of doom but about hope….good fruit.  I have always been expected to produce good fruit and this has made the difference I think…people in my life to support, uphold, and cheer me on.  We could perhaps pass that along today.  

 

So today cheer someone on.  Support them, expect good fruit because you know it is there. God has made sure of its goodness.  And for you, what will you do today with your fruit? What will you expect? As Mary Oliver so wisely wrote, “Tell me, what is it you plan to do, with your one wild and precious life?”

 

Prayers to you!

Courtney