As Mike and I chatted about the neighborhood, Harris, six, Ryan, four, came cruising up dragging their mother along. “We have brought you something Bill. Here, what do you think?”
As I glanced at the basket of stunningly beautiful and fragrant strawberries I was touched. They had picked them with the single of thought of giving something back. It was a special gift from the heart of two young boys. The green bag was unusual. Their mom explained. “They know you like to make sauce from apples. Even though they don’t understand why anyone would like this (English do not usually have applesauce), they wanted to picked some for you anyways.
Inside the bag was every type of apple imaginable. I could see a few big ones, almost ripe, sharing space with a rotten and quickly turning mushy brown shape, both side by side with small balls that had only recently been blossoms, and everything in between.
I could easily I imagine two young boys chatting and pulling apples off the tree while their mother smiled and enjoyed the moment. I am sure there were stories with each one. I can feel their smiles and laughter as I pick up and roll the premature fruit in my hands. As I reflected I would myself drifting into other scenes.
“One day I walked by the field of an old lazybones, and then passed the vineyard of a lout; they were overgrown with weeds, thick with thistles, all the fences broken down.
I took a long look and pondered what I saw; the fields preached me a sermon and I listened: “A nap here, a nap there, a day off here, a day off there, sit back, take it easy—do you know what comes next? Just this: You can look forward to a dirt-poor life, with poverty as your permanent houseguest!”” (Proverbs 24.30-34)
I carry an incredible thirst to know and experience God. You may not realize it but you do as well. God desires to know me even more.
“Harris, I think I just heard God.”
