A Fruitful Life   

We ought to be living as if Jesus died yesterday, rose this morning, and is coming back this afternoon. Adrian Rogers

I love watching the show “How Things are Made.”  I watched one this weekend about almonds.  I had never really thought about the process of making almonds.  Maybe because they grow on trees it never occurred to me that there might be a complicated process to it. The almond is really a drupe not a nut, similar to a plum or peach.  The almond seed is what we eat.

The largest almond producing state is California.  I don’t remember the exact statistics but there are over a million acres of almonds in California and this is a billion dollar industry.    

God never ceases to amaze me.  For instance, I didn’t know that it takes two different types of almond trees to produce almonds.  They plant one type on one row and the other type directly across from it in another row.  The problem is there are not enough bees in California to pollinate all the trees.  So they ship 60,000 bees in from as far away as 6000 miles in order to pollinate the trees.  As a side note, bees don’t like their hive to be moved and if they become agitated they will kill the one and only queen and then the hive will die. 

Once the blooms are pollinated they will produce an almond or in this case up to 7000 almonds per tree.  Your next question is, “How do they pick 7000 almonds from one tree, much less a million acres of trees?”  I am glad you asked.  They have a tree shaker.  This thing looks like a big bull dozer but it has a clamp on the front that wraps around the trunk and literally shakes the tree.  Then along comes a sweeper that sweeps the almonds into a pile in the center of each row, and then a vacuum cleaner picks them up.

This started me thinking.  God wants us to produce fruit and the problem with us is that we need His Word to produce fruit.  So, if we don’t read his word and meditate on it and discuss it with others we will never produce one piece of fruit. If we thirst for Him we will produce living water.  Then there are times when we need someone to come shake our tree.  These are the Christians around us who, when we stray away from God, they shake sense into us and help bring us back to Him. 

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, I am guilty of not producing fruit in my life.  I ask you for wisdom to interpret your Word and help me take the time to meditate on it with a godly heart. I praise you for providing us with the resources we need to produce an abundant life. 

Scripture:  On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”  But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.  John 7:37-39

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. James 1:5