Summer Fruit

“Thus the LORD GOD showed me, and behold, there was a basket of summer fruit. He said, ‘What do you see, Amos?’ And I said, ‘A basket of summer fruit.’ Then the LORD said to me, ‘The end has come for My people…’”.

(AMOS 8:1-2)

Well, our tomato growing friends at church just gave us another batch of those vine ripened beauties. SCORE! In my book nothing beats summer fruit. Summertime is the season of peaches and plums, beans and peas, and onions and okra. And watermelon! Every year we wait and wait until the gardens and orchards finally start coming in and then we binge on fruits and veggies and melons. And it is glorious!

But summer is also signaling that we need to “make hay while the sun shines”. The season of the sun’s kiss not only means sweetness, but fleetness as well. The days are getting shorter and “winter is coming”. Summer reminds us that the end is on its way. Fruitfulness has its rewards and its limits.

Opportunity is now, not later. PROVERBS 6:6 & 30:25 are messages to procrastinators to learn from the ant to get with it while you can. “Later” is the foolish strategy of a sluggard. Sloth is called one of the deadly sins for reasons that the presumptuous will sooner or later learn the hard way—the way of hunger and hardship.

Yes “summer fruit” means “Eat up!”

but it also warns “Get up! Get busy!” Get it?