Inspired by harvest and the produce of the season, we’re going enjoy a couple of the fruits mentioned in the Bible, and see how they might nourish us in a healthy relationship with God.
Micah 4: 4 tells us that “Everyone will live in peace among his own vineyards and fig trees, and no one will make him afraid. The Lord almighty has promised this”.
Reflection
Like those people thousands of years ago we can enjoy the riches, safety, joy and peace of God. We too are strengthened and encouraged by God.
Our first harvest fruit is the fig.
In Old Testament times the fig tree was valued for its delicious, sweet fruit and also because it represented prosperity, security and the fruitfulness of the land. It was an enjoyable thing to rest, to meditate on God’s word and pray in the shade of the leaves of the fig tree. The fig tree’s leaf is shaped a bit like a hand. Perhaps people imagined God’s hand over them, sheltering and protecting them as they sat under their fig tree.
So rest and meditate on God’s Word and pray, knowing God’s peace, which broods over us, hovers around us and guides us.
So, as you give thanks to God for the fruitfulness of the earth, take a few moments to be quiet and enjoy the shade of the fig tree of your mind’s eye.
Creative God
we give you thanks for all that is crunchy,
and tangy, and sweet
we give you thanks for all that is soft, and warm, and salty
for all that is grainy, and juicy, and dribbly
We give you thanks for all that is velvety, and variegated,
and dappled,
for all the flavour and savours of harvest we say
Thank you, Lord
The spider spinning webs; the whale swimming the ocean,
the poppy glowing in the field; the world in its commotion;
may we have eyes to recognise it all, and see the glory that is yours.
The magpie in the garden; the otter by the lake,
the flower in the rainforest; the vole, the fish, the snake:
may we have eyes to recognise them all, and celebrate the wildness of your imagination.
The desert creeping south; the icecaps breaking free,
the climate growing warmer – less rain for you; and more for me:
may we have eyes to see it all, and know the pain creation feels.
The power of the on-shore wave; the current in the stream,
the wind that turns the turbine blade, sun’s energy supreme:
may we have eyes to recognise it all, and insight to use your gifts well. Amen.
Look out for a fruit as you read Deuteronomy 32: 10-14 (NRSV)
10[The Lord] sustained [Jacob] in a desert land, in a howling wilderness waste;
he shielded him, cared for him, guarded him as the apple of his eye.
11 As an eagle stirs up its nest, and hovers over its young;
as it spreads its wings, takes them up, and bears them aloft on its pinions,
the Lord alone guided him; no foreign god was with him.
13 He set him upon the heights of the land, and fed him with produce of the field;
he nursed him with honey from the crags, with oil from flinty rock;
14 curds from the herd, and milk from the flock, with fat of lambs and rams;
Bashan bulls and goats, together with the choicest wheat — you drank fine wine from the blood of grapes.
Reflection
Imagine that! We know that the God of Jacob is our God and therefore, like Jacob, he guards us as the apple of his eye. So, our second fruit is the apple,
God guards and re-gards us as the apple of his eye!
I was the apple of my mum’s eye and Gwen is the apple of my eye. It’s a term of endearment, a term we use for those who have the closest of relationships with us. And God uses that same term of endearment for us. He uses a term that we might use for those who are most precious to us, that’s how much God loves us. And it’s that closeness of relationship that God wants to have with us.
Now, we humans have a tendency for floccinaucinihilipilification. Some time ago I set myself a challenge to use this word correctly in worship, and surprisingly I can use it properly and in context today. Floccinaucinihilipilification is a real word, though it’s rarely used. It’s 29 letters long (longer than antidisestablishmentarianism) and it means “the habit of, or action of judging something to be worthless or trivial”.
And we humans can tend to be in the habit of judging ourselves, or others to be worthless and trivial. But for God nothing could be further from the truth. Each and every one of us is the apple of God’s eye! We are so precious, valuable, and significant that each of us is the apple of God’s eye.
So, we should get out of the habit of floccinaucinihilipilification and value both ourselves and others, just as God does as the apple of God’s eye.
Rev Janine