My husband and I just got back from our son’s wedding in Colorado. All my children but the youngest drove with their families to attend. They paused their busy lives of work schedules, church, various sports practices as well as schooling to come and be present.
They desired to witness the much-anticipated marriage of their brother to his new bride.
And I spy the fruit of the Spirit we are examining this week — His fruit of faithfulness. I twist it free like an apple from a branch, just like the ones we munched on at the Del Rio ranch. I search it for brown spots or wormholes, but there are none.
Instead, I find iterations of faith reflected across the fruit’s surface and substance — loyalty, constance, resoluteness, steadfastness. And I observe these attributes in my children’s lives — in the cost of taking the time, financial resources, the laying down of their plans to come make fresh memories with one another and enter in to their brother’s joy.
And we all ate and were filled.
From a mountain hike, climbing among shallow caves to laughter at inside jokes. “We’re going on a bear hunt, we’re going to catch a big one…”
To going to a local amusement park and choosing their aunt because she looks like she would go fast and screaming “Again, again” as each ride came to a screeching halt. Running to the front of the line to ride again. Just one more time.
To sweet fellowship over meals.
And in a blink of my eye, I am dancing with my freshly married son to Slow Down by Nichole Nordeman, a song which always reduces me to tears. I hug this grown man’s neck knowing his baby days are long since past. Long since. And the fruit of his life has ripened before me in this long-awaited answer to a three decades old prayer.
Underneath his wedding garments, Thy Will Be Done is engraved on his left forearm, a declaration made after his near death car accident on Oklahoma ice-covered roads. It has been the whisper of his heart in each prayer over his singleness and God’s choosing of his station in life — with a help meet or not. He’d surrendered this to his Father’s best plans.
And I embrace the moment fully, gazing into his soft brown eyes. And seeing the love between he and his bride — God’s faithfulness answered. And our faithfulness in gathering together as a family is also fruit grown from God’s love.
And I am so grateful.
Psalm 52:8-9 (NRSV)
“But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God. I trust in the steadfast love of God forever and ever.
I will thank you forever, because of what you have done. In the presence of the faithful I will proclaim your name, for it is good.”
Across the table: Have you experienced long seasons of toil in the orchard waiting for fruit to come? How precious did it taste when it at last budded, grew, and ripened?
