Just Peachy

I’m not a gardener.  I do not have a green thumb.  I don’t know the names of trees or plants or flowers…and I don’t really care that I don’t.  It’s just not my thing.  And it’s probably why I was convinced our peach tree was dead after last season.

We didn’t realize we had a peach tree when we moved into this house until we had been here about a year.  And then, because of where it is in our backyard, we only discovered it because some peaches had fallen off and rolled into the part of the yard that we’re actually in more often.  The next year the birds got to the peaches before we did.  And last year, nothing.  No blooms, no peaches.  Nothing.  I was certain the tree was dead.  And ready to have it removed.  But didn’t.  Not for any particular reason, just that we didn’t do it.

And then, a couple of weeks ago, I looked out the kitchen window and was shocked to see beautiful, pink blooms.  I went outside to make sure it was actually the peach tree I was seeing.

Maybe last year was a dormant year. (Do peach trees have dormant years? See, I know NOTHING about this.)  I’m guessing it was.  Or maybe we had a late, hard freeze that killed blooms that we never saw.  But either way, I’m so glad I didn’t give up on that tree.

Do you have a place that is dormant in your life? Or maybe a relationship? A place where there used to be great life, beautiful blooms and abundant fruit? But lately, and maybe for a while, it has felt dormant at best? Sometimes things really are dead and need to be pulled out by the roots to keep from poisoning the life around it.  But sometimes things are dormant.  They’ve had a hard winter…a time that has stifled growth.  But if you hold on, that place, that relationship that has been dormant will bring forth new fruit.  Maybe there’s work you need to do.  Maybe you’ve been doing the work, obediently following the Father wondering where the fruit is.  LIFE WILL COME.  FRUIT WILL COME.

Don’t give up on that dormant place.  Don’t give up on that dormant relationship.  Don’t rip something out by the roots that still has life to give.  The Father sees your desire for life in that place.  The blossoms are coming.  The fruit is coming.  Continue to labor (or begin to labor, if that’s where you are).  When God sprouts the blooms and then the fruit, the bounty will be abundant.  And beautiful.  And life, like my fruit bowl this year, will be just peachy.