Better than Apples?

My mother and I started a new tradition. Each October, we drive the miles it takes to get to Cochiti Dam, turn west down a 6-mile, rutted, sometimes muddy dirt road, all for the purpose of purchasing 20 pounds of apples; not any apples, but northern New Mexican champagne apples, grown in Dixon.

This year was a bumper crop with bins overflowing with green and yellow apples. “If next year is like this one,” the owner said, “without frost, or harsh weather of any kind, next year should be as good as this one.”

Of course, nobody can predict what next year, let alone the next day, will look like; but the fact that champagne apples grow at all is a testament to God’s goodness and God’s provision. The fact that, even in hard times, people drive for miles to buy apples is a testament to human ingenuity: what won’t we do for something or someone we care about, value sufficiently, and think good? Why, look at what we go through to purchase an apple!

So, what about God’s Church? Are we willing to drive miles and miles to be there, in the presence of God, and God’s people? Are we willing to endure rutted roads, unpredictable seasons, all for the purpose of seeing God’s goodness take root and blossom? Are we willing to spend what money we have to help grow God’s love, in our churches and communities, better than trees with apples?

As autumn begins and apples are harvested, let's ask ourselves: Is our love for God, for God’s Church, for God’s people, for God’s world, as nourishing, sustaining, life-giving (and delicious) as a Dixon apple? If not, let’s ask God to help renew our faith and love to continue working at it.

Yours in the Orchard,
A Pastor in the Desert