October 27, 2022

We have a prodigious fig tree in our front yard. This season it has yielded figs by the hundreds. Since the tree is right by the street, we put up a sign that said, “Please Help Yourself to Figs!”. The one who really helped herself to figs was our dog. Every morning in the pre-dawn darkness she galloped out the front door to the fig tree. She claimed all the windfall figs for her own. Although fig season is over, she still races to the tree, only to trot back disheartened after a few minutes of fruitless search.

The psalmist says that blessed is the one who delights in the Lord. “He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields fruit in its season.” (Psalm 1:3) You may be in the “off season” in some area of your life. You are looking for fruit, but you find none. That doesn’t mean that God is absent or you aren’t delighting in the Lord. It just means that we were not meant to constantly produce fruit. Relax. Your season will come back around.

“Heavenly Father, in you we live and move and have our being: We humbly pray you so to guide and govern us by your Holy Spirit, that in all the cares and occupations of our 
life we may not forget you, but may remember that we are ever walking in your sight; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.” (A Collect for Guidance – BCP)