Fresh fruit is one of my favorite things about summertime. There’s nothing quite like biting into a cold, sweet strawberry or a piece of juicy, red watermelon in the heat of a southern summer day. It’s just so refreshing!
A couple of weeks ago, I was sitting by my window reading and soaking up the sunshine, enjoying a bowl of strawberries I had just bought on my Sunday grocery run. As I was wiping a dab of juice from my chin, I was suddenly overwhelmed by the fact that such a juicy, sweet little thing had come out of the ground! How incredible that God has created such yummy goodies for us in nature!
Typically, when I think about sweet treats, I’m picturing a big ol’ piece of cheesecake or a scoop of triple chocolate ice cream, but there was nothing added to my little bowl of fruit. There was no sugar, no whipped cream, not even a drizzle of chocolate syrup -- just the sweetness God had graciously provided from His hand (by way of Walmart’s produce aisle).
Those strawberries really made me think about the goodness of our Lord. He could have made every food taste the same, and we wouldn’t have been the wiser! We obviously need food to survive, but it was the love of our heavenly Father that gave us sweetness and spice and tang.
How good He is to give us food that we can enjoy!
After showing me His love through the simplicity of these ordinary berries, I felt the Holy Spirit stirring in my heart asking if I would rather have the ripe strawberries from His hand or a piece of strawberry cheesecake with all its added sugar. He wanted me to really consider if what He provided in His goodness was enough, or if I felt like I needed or deserved something more than just His fruit.
In that moment, my heart was so convicted about how often I take God’s blessings for granted, or believe that I need to add to them to make them better. Despite the fact that indulging in the occasional piece of strawberry cheesecake may not necessarily be sinful, I think it’s a good example of how we try to supplement God’s blessings.
Since that conversation with the Lord, I’ve begun to notice just how much sugar we add to almost everything we eat. No wonder we have so many sugar-related health issues! We took a good and gracious gift from the Father and dangerously over-indulged instead of thanking Him for it. I think that is just one more telling side effect of trying to “add” to God’s blessings. He gives us sweet strawberries and we make unhealthy, sugary cake. What a spot-on metaphor for our spiritual lives.
James 1:17 tells us that, “Every good and perfect gift is from above,” but believing that His gifts are not enough leads to a rat race of searching for something better. That search always leaves us with the cancer of comparison and a deep dissatisfaction in what the world has to offer.
I pray that we would each take time to recognize the love we’ve been shown through the blessings God has provided each of us. May we indulge in the grace of salvation through Jesus and recognize the love God shows us through every undeserved blessing beyond the cross. Even down to the strawberries.
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