August 2: LEARNING FROM NATURE

When I was a child, picking wild blackberries was a part of summer. They grew profusely on our farm. My Mother canned the made pies, preserves, and anything else she could imagine. It was fun and work for a boy who loved blackberries.
A few years ago I bought a house surrounded by a wooded area where I discovered a lot of blackberries growing. I was happy. I got a pan and picked as many as I could and left many red and green unripe berries on the vines. I told myself to go back in three days for another picking. But I got busy and it was seven days before I got back to the blackberry patch.
What a disappointment! They had ripened and dried up on the vine and there was nothing left to harvest but hardened little reminders of a sweet harvest that had passed. I was so disappointed because my wife was waiting to bake me a blackberry cobbler.
While I stood in the middle of that blackberry patch I was taught a very important lesson as a Christian. Don’t delay with urgent things! Don’t put it off! If you are planning to tell someone about Jesus, do it today; in three days it may be too late. You may get preoccupied and not get back to it.
I wonder how many people there are today who are just waiting for someone to tell them of Jesus. Today is a strategic time in their lives. In a few days their hearts may be but hardened reminders of what might have been. Or a tragedy may come, like the bridge collapse in Minneapolis, and the opportunity be lost.
There is a plaintive line in Jeremiah 8:20 (NIV), “the harvest is past, the summer has ended, and we are not saved.” Can’t you see it from the unbeliever’s perspective? Other people are being saved daily from all kinds of hellish, nightmarish experiences and having life-changing experiences, yet no one has introduced them to the love of Jesus. Don’t waste a harvest opportunity!

“Lord of all Truth, when You teach us these spiritual lessons, may we
seriously the truth we have received and apply it in our lives. Amen”