Summer's Fruit

We all have a favourite season and each season has a glory to be explored and valued.

Summer is a time of sun, warmth, bare feet, swimming, planting, watering, growing...
It's a season of fruit.  The trees have leaves on their bare branches and the lawns are green.  There is growth, visible signs of growth.

It's a busy season, where there is lots of activity - parties, reunions, get-togethers, planting gardens and flowers and then keeping them watered and weeds pulled.  We cut the grass and work till dark. We can and preserve the goodies that we gather from our gardens and bounty's yield. It's where we run out-of-doors, no thought of a coat or putting on shoes.  Yeah, we get to wear sandals or flip flops!

We go on vacations and swimming with friends.  We laugh and breathe deep the scents of summer.  Life is full and rich.

It's a season of DOING, of giving, of prosperity and fruitfulness...  It's where we feel useful.  We feel like we have something to give.  to offer those around us.

And so, it's easy to dry up inside.  To give and give, forgetting the reason we live and breathe.  Forgetting to stop and remember Him who loves us so and wants us to love Him and to glorify Him.  Fruit is an outward evidence of an inner source.  
If we don't stay connected to Jesus, our Source, our fruit will only last a season.

So, even in the middle of summer's activity, we must pause and smell the roses.  We must stop and simply breathe deep.  Breathe deep of His love for us individually.  Refill our pitchers, so that we don't dry up and can continue to pour out what we experience and receive...

And by summer's end, I'm usually ready for the shorter evenings and for summer's work to end...  And so... autumn is next.