onthly MeditationMeditation for January, 2007
The other day, I was doing an edit of a piece for a friend of mine. When I had finished it, I copied it to my computer’s clipboard to put it in the body of the e-mail for my friend. My computer asked if I wanted to save the clipboard material for future use and I clicked “no”. Instantly the material was deleted and I had not, as yet, put it into the e-mail. That material was lost forever. My edit had gone.
A few weeks ago, I would have become angry and frustrated and, for a moment, I was heading that way. Then, I made a conscious decision not to do that. I m
I am being made over into a new being. God has been making me over into a new creation, with my help, for some time. And suddenly, I could see the fruit of the Spirit beginning to form in me. I re-did the edit calmly and got it done satisfactorily and with a joy at knowing that God’s work in me was paying off.
There is so much work to be done in the garden of our souls and sometimes we get tired of the weeding, digging and planting; the hoeing, pruning and fertilising. But God, the Master Gardener, has done all this before and we, as apprentices, learn the lessons under the Divine tutelage. If we don’t give up, God can do wonders for us.
The only reason that the spiritual fruit within us will not come to maturity is if we give up on ourselves. God never gives up. God patiently shows us the way. We practise one more time, and then one more time again until, finally, there is the beautiful, mature fruit of patience, love, or gentleness, or whatever the fruit is that has taken so much time and effort on our part to bring to harvest.
God holds our moments in the Divine hand and reveals them one by one for us to live to the fullest. And live them fully we must because, in a moment, they pass and we will not have a chance to live them again. Putting our trust in God for these moments we are given, we are able to live them in peace and not chaos. We learn to trust that through the changes in our lives we will grow into the mature spiritual fruit of God’s creative hand. (Galatians 5:22, 23)
Only God knows what spiritual fruit our souls will produce in our lives and we have to decide whether or not we will trust God with our life’s fruit. If we trust God, even though we might have doubts from time to time, the Holy Spirit can work in us to produce the perfect fruit.
As we get older, we experience more and more changes and spiritual growth comes more quickly. It can be overwhelming at times but, if we trust God with our growth, we do not need to fear the unknown moments only live them to the fullest.
The autumn days come on and are filled with glorious colour. Then the leaves fall to the ground and the colour is gone. This is the time of the gathering of the harvest and our mature fruit is offered on the altar of our God, with great thanksgiving.
© Judith Lawrence, January 2007
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