While reading Galatians 5:22-24, too often, the picture of 'fruit' in my mind more resembles plastic or wax fruit than real, on the vine, bug-bites-and-all fruit. Real fruit, the kind you find for sale in shacks at the edges of farms, is not necessarily pretty, but it is beautiful. The fruit is the essence of the thing. It is the self-expression of the vine.
So, if our fruit--love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control--is the self-expression of the Spirit, then what does he look like? Surely, he is not like that wax or plastic decor that gathers dust on the coffee table. His fruit is more like that roadside stand fruit--worn, poked, and bitten by bugs, but also beautiful, flavorful, various, and alive.
Sunday, Pastor Charlie talked about the wrestling match between Jacob and the man. The thing that always strikes me is that 'the man' was not winning; Jacob was winning. He absolutely would not let go. This guy--named cheater, basically--held on to 'the man' for dear life. And he didn't even know who 'the man' was until later. He only knew that the man held the blessing. In the end, the blessing turned the cheater into one-who-wrestles-with-God. That's a cool name. That's fruit with bug bites. That's fruit with life.
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