“Peachy Blessings"

    It has been and continues to be an amazing Alabama peach season (I couldn't comment on the lesser Georgia variety, but hopefully our neighbors to the east are doing as well as they can, considering… :)  ).  Sweet, juicy (dribble down the chin juicy), perfectly textured (soft fleshed, but firm), and visually beautiful as painted by the hand of God, His favorite fruit, the Alabama peach, has never been better or more gratefully appreciated.

    "God… giveth us richly all things to enjoy" (I Timothy 6:17).

    You are aware, of course, that only God could have devised and created peaches.  Indeed, consider that peaches have always existed in the heart and mind of the great Artist.  Only at creation, however, did this masterpiece become visually, fragrantly, deliciously, and texturally manifested.  Moreover, only when the Lord made human beings did beings exist who could find not merely physical pleasure in the peach, but also emotional, mental, and even spiritual delight in God's good gift.  "My delights were with the sons of men" (Proverbs 8:31).

    The latter point provides the brightest light and greatest blessing of this consideration.  We never fully enjoy any good thing until we recognize it as our Lord's joyous bestowal to our hearts.  Whatever pleasure we experience in the reception and enjoyment pales in comparison to the joy God experiences in the planning and bestowal.  "It is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom" (Luke 12:32).  When we know that our Lord rejoices in our enjoyment, our own delight is exponentially enhanced and expanded.  "It is more blessed to give than to receive" declared the Lord Jesus Christ of a truth that begins with our Father's great joy in providing, and even greater joy in our glad reception of His wondrous generosity.

    I try to remember this during these fleeting days of the peach season.  As the produce manager of our local vegetable and fruit store said the other day about this season's peachy blessings, "When they're gone, they're gone!"  So, I'll seek to enjoy these gifts of God while I can, recognizing them as such, and even more, remembering that the Lord enjoys our enjoyment more than do we ourselves.  He made us with the capacity for delight, and with the spiritual, mental, and emotional faculties to rejoice in Him even we enjoy His good gifts.  Yes, God made peaches, and He made this season's Alabama version especially wonderful.  They would be amazing even if we didn't know their origin in the love of the Lord Jesus.  They are far more glorious because we do know, and because we bow our hearts in gratitude even as the juice dribbles down our chin.

"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights."

(James 1:17)

Weekly Memory Verse

    That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

(John 3:6)