The Deliciousness of God’s GOODNESS
Café Menu for Tuesday, June 16, 2015
Today’s Special is: Lessons from My Raspberry Patch
Carefully prepared just for you by your friend, Noelle Okolowicz
Main ingredient:
O taste and see that the Lord [Our God] is good! Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) is the man who trusts and takes refuge in Him.
Psalm 34:8 AMP
Entrée:
December 10, 2013 was the coldest day of the year, and the snowiest too, in my lake-side town of Webster, NY. I remember, because that was also “moving day”, and we had no clue what our new lawn even looked like.
Until Spring.
Our poor yard was a hot mess. Overgrown and neglected, it was in need of some serious love.
Battling brush piles and filling ruts took a lot of elbow-grease, but not much thought. That was, until I’d inadvertently slaughtered a bunch of asparagus! Oops. I had no idea.
Moving forward with extra caution, a discovery of raspberry bushes ignited delight. I’d never had a fruit garden before, and though I didn’t know what to expect, a fresh, new anticipation for summer was born that day.
Those beauties became my pride and joy. BOOM! Raspberries galore. Every day was an adventure picking bucket-fulls and making pies! Thirty-two fresh-baked delicious pies filled the tummies of our friends, family and neighbors.
God’s goodness is like finding a patch of raspberry bushes in your yard. Sometimes it takes a keen eye to recognize it, but once you do, the anticipation builds. You wonder what’s going to happen next.
Are you looking for His goodness in your life?
God’s goodness often grows in unlikely places. It’s twice as fun to spot when you don’t expect it, and it often shows up in unlikely places.
Are you looking for His goodness in unlikely situations?
God’s goodness is a harvest. When those berries finally come and you see the beautiful fruit, do you let it sit and rot on the vine, or do you reach out and fill your bucket?
Are you taking action to harvest His goodness for your life?
God’s goodness is meant to be shared. Once you taste the sweetness, you can’t help but find creative ways to give it to everyone you know. Sometimes God’s goodness comes TO us, but it also comes THROUGH us.
Are you allowing God’s goodness to move through you to others?
His word says,
O taste and see that the Lord [Our God] is good! Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) is the man who trusts and takes refuge in Him.
Psalm 34:8 AMP
Take Out:
It’s time for a treasure hunt! Go find God’s hidden raspberry patch in your heart today. Taste the bounty of His goodness as you look for it in the unlikely circumstances of your own life, and as you share it with others.
Dessert:
Lord Jesus, Thank You for Your goodness! Help us to remember that YOU ARE GOOD, even in messy, dark times. May we taste and see the fruit of Your love, and pass it on to “feed” a hurting world in Your name. Amen.
© 2015 by Noelle Okolowicz. All rights reserved.
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