Like fruit

I like fruit, of all kinds.
A friend recently treated me to a dessert of mango in freshly squeezed lime juice with a sprinkling of chili pepper atop. I was pleasantly surprised in its taste. Last night we relished the more familiar sweetness of raspberries, blackberries, and strawberries.

Sweet physical fruit results from God's care and human tender harvesting: so also does good fruit mature in our lives (metaphorically) as a result of care and attention. Specifically, at least for me, love grows good fruit. The only way I’ve found to nurture the “good fruits” of love is to live in ways God suggests and to live by the enabling of His Spirit within. When I do so (and sadly, I most certainly don’t always do so!), I experience ripe fruit-like sweetness in my days.

These words from The Message paraphrase inform and encourage me; they describe the fruit of the Spirit – the ways that love manifests:

My counsel is this: Live freely,
animated and motivated by God’s Spirit.
Then you won’t feed the compulsions of selfishness…
what happens when we live God’s way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard – things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity.
We develop a willingness to stick with things,
a sense of compassion in the heart, and
a conviction that basic holiness
permeates things and people,
we find ourselves involved in loyal commitments,
not needing to force our way in life,
able to marshal and direct our energies wisely.
- Galatians 5: 16, 22, 23

[Just in case you want to know a bit about mango selection: "We try to buy the ones showing the most yellow. We then store them on our counter top with bananas, which seem to help ripen the mangos. When ripe, the mango will become slightly soft, and the skin will often begin to show a slight wrinkling." ]
Text from http://www.all-creatures.org/recipes/fruit-mango.html. Mango picture from http://hawaiirama.com