Bowl full of cherries (from A Holy Experience)

I just read this over at A Holy Experience and thought it was so beautiful that I would share it. The ending got me. I think that's the dillemma I've been facing--do I really want to deal with the pits? Or should I trust my Heavenly Father to use the pits for new harvest?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He and I, we bring home a cherry tree in the bed of the pickup, roots twelve years old (a year younger than him), fibrous and fragile, leaves slapping in the wind.

And he’s telling me how much he paid for milky moon on buds, raindrops coursing down bark still smooth young, snow falling thick and quiet on branches , sun unwrapping the first early blossoms. True, a more slender tree was cheaper, but he’s telling me how much he decided to pay (with birthday money, his 13th) for time, a cycle of a dozen seasons to be exact, for trunk thicker, limbs longer.

Paying for time. I’d like to buy me some of that.

More of that.June’s heat falls heavy and hot, too close and sticky, and we’re rolling windows right down, and I turn down a back gravel road and let the wind whip our hair cool, relieve us from this tinny oven. Arm out the window, riding high then low on air currents, he’s talking about which end of the orchard to plant it and how to ward off winged thieves, those wily crows scheming to scarf down ruby gems, and wondering how many cherries it would take to make a pie, but did I have any ideas on how to pit what is sure to be a record-breaking crop?

I am still back thinking about time and how to get more of it (but it’s really about just making the most of it) and knowing the hope and loss we’re bringing home in the back of this pick-up.

So I turn, look into the field-tanned face of this boy of mine who’s just left childhood and bought himself a cherry tree and I smile and tell him what little I know of life, and this heaping bowl of cherries bestowed.

“We’ll deal with the pits.”

He smiles too and he and I drive home to plant a ball of roots in dirt and wait with open hands for what the seasons bring, time heavy with cherries and pits redeemed, a pie orchard for a someday generation.

Scripture Thought: "Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?" (Job 2:10)

Lord, cause me to see, gather, taste, the cherries of each season. And help me deal with the pits: with You, they could be planted for more sweet.