The Fruits of the Spirit

This year my apple tree has produced more apples than ever before – it was meant to be a small espalier tree but has grown into a large untidy tree which produces hundreds of apples. We’ve eaten them as they come, made chutney, apple juice, apple crumbles and stewed apples. I’ve given apples away to anyone who shows the slightest interest them. Still we have four boxes of apples piled up in my kitchen waiting to be cooked or eaten. Everywhere I look I see trees laden with apples, pears or quinces, and bushes full of hips and haws. This year seems to a bumper year for fruit – an abundance all around. Grown and gifted to us with no effort, activity or skill on our part.

It seems an appropriate time for junior church to start a new theme for our activities – the fruits of the spirit. This week we looked at love. The children munched apples from my tree as we heard the story of Zaccheus hiding in a tree (a sycamore tree, rather than an apple tree) wanting to see Jesus. He was too short to see from behind the crowds but also ashamed to show himself to Jesus because he was a tax collector who took more money than he should and lined his own pockets. Despite being hidden in the leaves of the tree Jesus saw Zaccheus, stopped, looked at him with love and called him down from the tree. Jesus’ love extends to everyone – even those who feel they are ashamed of what they do or who they are, even those who feel small and unimportant, even those who feel Jesus wouldn’t notice them. There is no limit to who Jesus loves. As Zaccheus showed, there is no limit to how we can be transformed when we realise we are completely and unconditionally loved by Jesus. As he experienced Jesus’s love poured out on him Zaccheus decided to give to the poor and restore what he had wrongfully taken. His response to love was love.

As we look around at the fruit hanging and falling from trees and bushes this autumn may we remember God’s abundant love for us and his invitation to us to respond with love.

“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” Galatians 5:22

Lord, I pray that You would help me bear these fruits in my life,

for I know that they are a reflection of Your character.

Father, fill my heart with love, so that I may love others as You have loved me.

Help me to spread joy and be a source of peace in a world filled with turmoil.

Amen

(From a prayer by Rich Bitterman)