Abundance

As I picked the berries, I prayed.  Lord, may we see an abundance of fruit in Aix-les-Bains like the abundance of raspberries on these bushes.

For several weeks my friend had been texting me.  “When are you coming over?  I have too many raspberries.”  Finally I had time to visit, and after an hour of traipsing my way through the bushes in her backyard, I came home with more than 12 cups of raspberries.

Some of the ripe berries were obvious.  They were right out front, bright pink and just asking to be eaten.  Some of the berries were a bit more hidden.  I went bush by bush, reaching behind and above and below, plucking berries off the branches.  Some were so ripe and ready that they fell to the ground at the mere touch of the branch.  Others needed to be pulled but came off easily.  Yet still, there were berries that were not yet ripe.  Oh, they looked ripe.  They had the nice pink color and the perfect size of a ripe raspberry, but they took too much effort to pull of the branch, indicating that they weren’t yet ready.  

As I picked berries, I realized that it was so much bigger than raspberries. 

We think we know the perfect raspberry, but sometimes we are surprised.  The small berries may be just as juicy as the large ones, maybe even sweeter.  Likewise, we think we know who is ripe to hear the Gospel, who is ready to respond, but His ways are not our ways.

   

Some ripe berries were clustered with not yet ripe berries; some un-ripe berries were in clusters with perfectly ripe ones; some berries were over-ripe and therefore bad.  And just when I thought I was done, that I’d found all of the ripe berries, I’d spot another cluster.  And another.  And yet another. 

Just like people and the Gospel.

Oh sure, we can get into another metaphor about the vine and the branches and Jesus, but that's not the image that came to mind as I picked the raspberries last week.  

Instead, I was reminded that we must be diligent in seeking out those who are ready.  We must seek high and low, in front and behind, and re-trace our steps.  And it helps to have more than one person because, as I found with my friend, we saw ripe berries that the other had missed.

With this image of fresh and ripe raspberries in my mind, I pray that we would see an abundance of spiritual fruit in the city of Aix-les-Bains, that those who follow Jesus in this city would be diligent to work together to seek out those who are ready for the Gospel message.  In Luke 10:2, Jesus says, "...The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.  Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to sent out laborers into his harvest."  I pray that the Lord of the harvest would send more laborers into His harvest in France. 

As you eat fresh berries this summer, would you join us in praying for an abundance of spiritual fruit in Aix-les-Bains?  We know that God "...is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever.  Amen."  (Ephesians 3:20-21)  

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