Blackberries!

One day I went strolling through the orchard,

looking for signs of spring,

looking for buds about to burst into flower...

Song of Solomon

Down the little side street by my house is an area between two homes that is sort of like a no-man's-land--just a massive amount of vegetation.  I didn't pay too much attention to it the first summer I lived here, but last summer the area caught my eye in early June as I realized that a portion of the greenery were blackberry brambles!  For several weeks last summer, I would awaken early, grab a little container, and pick a handfull of fresh blackberries for my cereal.

This past week, I noticed that there were several volunteer trees that had grown up among the brambles and honeysuckle vine, shading the berries and threatening to take over the landscape.  Yesterday I brought my loppers and made quick work of all that overgrown foliage - exposing the brambles to the sunlight that would quickly ripen the berries.  In the evening, I noticed another neighbor and his little girl searching the branches for ripe fruit.  When I walked past this morning, I noticed several red berries shining brightly in the sun, a promise of the fully ripe blackberries to come.  

Sometimes our lives are like this overgrown patch of vegetation - with stress and problems and irritations and worries darkening our skies and hiding the light of God's love.  When that happens, its time to do a little pruning - of obligations, of activities, of anything that weighs us down and stresses us out.  Just like plants, in the darkness we wither; in the sunlight, we blossom and flourish.