Yesterday we discovered multiple blackberry bushes along a steep slope behind our house. I say discovered because this is our first summer living in South Carolina and we are still exploring the property surrounding our home.
I quickly remembered a time many years ago when our two oldest sons, joined by their Granddad McCabe all went blackberry picking one cool summer evening in Florida. There were so many blackberries that they each took 5-gallon buckets and managed to fill them over half full. There was some competition going on too! Each one wanted to see who could pick the most blackberries. Now some 30 years later, my husband and I were carrying on our own competition to see who could get the most berries. Funny how some things never change. It was pure country fun!
Once inside the house, I soaked the berries in one inch of salted water and let them set over night. This is recommended with wild fruit to rid the berries of any unwanted pests or little varmints that could have made a home in the berry patch.
Today I'm making a blackberry cobbler with our recent harvest. The berries will be a healthy and tasty delight to eat and one in which we retrieved with such little effort! I couldn't help but make a comparison to the event in light of God's blessings. Many times in life we sow seeds of kindness in various ways to other people. Do we know how or when it will be returned to us? Probably not, but we do these random acts of kindness because life is not made up of the things we acquire for ourselves but the things we are able to give.
My kudos to you today: Realize that when you give to someone unexpectedly, they get to receive a harvest of goodness in which they did not expect, just like our wild blackberry bushes! Today, look for the opportunities to be a wild blackberry bush to some hungry traveler along life's road. Your kindness might just spark something in their life that could provide for them a basketful of berry blessings!
Good will come to those who are generous and lend freely, who conduct their affairs with justice. Psalm 112:5
If you are willing and obedient, You shall eat the good of the land. Isaiah 1:19
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