Fruit
Fruit.
I crave it.
Ever since leaving my island, that brimmed over with the luscious stuff at any given time, to return to my desert home, I have craved fruit. You don’t normally get boatloads of ripe, colorful fruit in the middle of the desert. In order for them to reach us at all, they have to pick the fruit really early and ship it to us way under ripe.
Abba Father, I have tasted you and seen that You were real when I totally did not expect it. When I experienced 4 car crashes within 6 months and when I walked peaceful afternoons, when our babies died and when someone would tell me I really made their day beautiful, when injustice was served and when I woke up from a nightmare to live another full and beautiful day. Where are You now?
Anytime I traveled with a colleague, they witnessed absurd little me to the extreme. If I saw water or if I saw fruit, I went ballistic. “FRUIT!!! Look at all that WATER!!!” was pretty much all I would scream until somebody satisfied me with the source of my delight. I’m sure my friends’ body language said, “I don’t know her…really.” Hey, just because they never knew what it was like to live in a desert…
Abba, I’m so frustrated with being misunderstood! It feels like nobody wants to know me on the inside out. I want someone to know me, to want to know me, to value me, to treasure me. Life seems so fake and fickle here.
One fruit that stole my heart is known as Mangifera Anacardiaceae, or the mango. Just thinking about it tickles my taste buds and excites my brain with expectancy. It’s a huge let down when I force myself to remember that the nearest good mango is over 5,000 miles.
Sometimes Abba, I want the things that I used to have. The simplicity of the way things used to be…
A literally sweet memory for me is when a mango would sit on my desk and I would admire it from a few feet’s distance. That’s when a whole ritual began. I gazed at the mango, took in the shape of the mango, the nuances, the colors, the textures, the scent…each aspect I savored. As I slowly peeled it apart, each layer of skin exposed juicy orange flesh.
Remembering the past causes me to think of a time when you left no doubt in my mind of Who You are and who I am. You, The Living Word, became alive. So why should You, The Eternal One, be any different today? You should be just as real now, right?
"I am that I am.“I am the Vine and you are the branches. Those who stay united with Me, and I with them, are the ones who bear much fruit; because apart from me you can’t do a thing…If you remain united with Me, and My Words abide with you, then ask whatever you want, and it will happen for you.”
So what affects me, You feel it just as much. And when I’m connected into You, I feel what You feel?
“Do not let yourselves be conformed to the standards of the world of this age. Instead, keep letting yourselves be transformed by the renewing of your minds; so that you will know what God wants and will agree that what He wants is good, satisfying and able to succeed. “Just as my Father has loved me, I too have loved you; so stay in My love. If you keep my commands, you will stay in My love --just as I have kept my Father’s commands and stay in His love. I have said this to you so that my joy may be in you, and your joy be complete.”
I let my mouth rest on it, allowing every sensory to engage and rest within the pure delight of the mango. Every care and stress line of my day melted away. Time did not exist. And I had an entire mango to go still…
Savor that.
I crave it.
Ever since leaving my island, that brimmed over with the luscious stuff at any given time, to return to my desert home, I have craved fruit. You don’t normally get boatloads of ripe, colorful fruit in the middle of the desert. In order for them to reach us at all, they have to pick the fruit really early and ship it to us way under ripe.
Abba Father, I have tasted you and seen that You were real when I totally did not expect it. When I experienced 4 car crashes within 6 months and when I walked peaceful afternoons, when our babies died and when someone would tell me I really made their day beautiful, when injustice was served and when I woke up from a nightmare to live another full and beautiful day. Where are You now?
Anytime I traveled with a colleague, they witnessed absurd little me to the extreme. If I saw water or if I saw fruit, I went ballistic. “FRUIT!!! Look at all that WATER!!!” was pretty much all I would scream until somebody satisfied me with the source of my delight. I’m sure my friends’ body language said, “I don’t know her…really.” Hey, just because they never knew what it was like to live in a desert…
Abba, I’m so frustrated with being misunderstood! It feels like nobody wants to know me on the inside out. I want someone to know me, to want to know me, to value me, to treasure me. Life seems so fake and fickle here.
One fruit that stole my heart is known as Mangifera Anacardiaceae, or the mango. Just thinking about it tickles my taste buds and excites my brain with expectancy. It’s a huge let down when I force myself to remember that the nearest good mango is over 5,000 miles.
Sometimes Abba, I want the things that I used to have. The simplicity of the way things used to be…
A literally sweet memory for me is when a mango would sit on my desk and I would admire it from a few feet’s distance. That’s when a whole ritual began. I gazed at the mango, took in the shape of the mango, the nuances, the colors, the textures, the scent…each aspect I savored. As I slowly peeled it apart, each layer of skin exposed juicy orange flesh.
Remembering the past causes me to think of a time when you left no doubt in my mind of Who You are and who I am. You, The Living Word, became alive. So why should You, The Eternal One, be any different today? You should be just as real now, right?
"I am that I am.“I am the Vine and you are the branches. Those who stay united with Me, and I with them, are the ones who bear much fruit; because apart from me you can’t do a thing…If you remain united with Me, and My Words abide with you, then ask whatever you want, and it will happen for you.”
So what affects me, You feel it just as much. And when I’m connected into You, I feel what You feel?
“Do not let yourselves be conformed to the standards of the world of this age. Instead, keep letting yourselves be transformed by the renewing of your minds; so that you will know what God wants and will agree that what He wants is good, satisfying and able to succeed. “Just as my Father has loved me, I too have loved you; so stay in My love. If you keep my commands, you will stay in My love --just as I have kept my Father’s commands and stay in His love. I have said this to you so that my joy may be in you, and your joy be complete.”
I let my mouth rest on it, allowing every sensory to engage and rest within the pure delight of the mango. Every care and stress line of my day melted away. Time did not exist. And I had an entire mango to go still…
Savor that.
posted by Dominique at
22:50
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