Faith-bearing Seed for the Soul
"The sower soweth the Word."

Mark 4:14

Those Pesky Blackbirds...

Here they come, right at peach blossoming season!  Hundreds upon hundreds of them!  Jet back, with shimmering green and blue glaze glistening from their sleek feathers.  I have to admit, they are beautiful, and if it weren't for the destruction they cause, I'd welcome their illustrious yearly migration.

The moment I spot the first blackbird, out to my blossoming peach tree I vault, flagellating my arms like a whirling
helicopter blade, in hopes of scattering them before the peach tree is bare.  Unfortunately, this partticular spring I was in town when they arrived.  My heart sunk as I saw the last trail of them flying off.  My gorgeous peach blossoms must have tasted like a Baskins-Robbin's peach parfait to them!  All that remain on the tree was about fifteen of the smaller blossoms.

As I turned to go back into the house, my eyes fixed upon one remaining huge bird perched on a tree branch close to the house.  It seemed as though the bird was questioning me.  If I had been able to discern what it was saying, I'd guess that it was saying,"Why are you so upset with us?  We only did what God sent us
to do!" 

All was not lost. A few weeks later, to my glee, I counted fifteen tiny peaches that had survived the raid.  They grew... and they grew...and they grew into the largest, most plump, juiciest peaches I've ever harvested.  As my neighbors oowed and awed over them, my pride went through the rooftop! 

Lurking within me has always been a "wannabe" farmer.  I love to see things grow!  However, after living on the seething desert for so many years, it's difficult for me to prune anything.  "If it's green and growing, leave it alone," was my motto.  As a result, I couldn't bear to pick those excessive blossoms off the peach tree, and every year my tree would produce many scrawny peaches.

Those pesky blackbirds not only taught me why I need to thin the blossoms, but also why the Lord MUST groom us.  Yes, God surely used those birds, just like He uses unpleasant circumstances and our enemy as pruning sheers to prune us to perfection so that larger fruit will be produced in our lives.  Without tribulation, how would our patience ever have an opportunity to grow?

John 15:1,2 KJ
"I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.  Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away:
and every branch that beareth fruit, He purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.

Some Bible translations actually say that his grooming is designed to bring forth “LARGER FRUIT.”  We must remember that the Father is the Husbandman, our Gardener, and He is capable of keeping the pesky problems out of our lives when He sees that they could totally destroy us.  He promises us that no more temptation will be put upon us than we can bear.

I Corinthians 10:13
“There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.”

John 15:8 says that the Father is glorified when we bear fruit, just like the large peaches brought me a sense of
accomplishment.  And verse 16 says that He has chosen us and ordained us to go forth and bear fruit.  It is His
desire and will for us to be fruitful and bring glory to His kingdom.  My hope is that in the future we will all
look at those "pesky blackbirds" in our lives in a new light, realize that they are a purging tool to make us grow,
used by the Lord, and that God is totally aware of them.  I pray that we will Learn the lessons that they have come
to teach us, and that we will grow from them. 

Well, with sheers in hand, I'm back to the garden...Watch out apple tree!  You've been dormant way too long!

Rooted and grounded in the love of Christ Jesus,

Marlene JuHaros,
TexasSower@prayervine.org

a.k.a. PrayerVine

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Eccl. 11:6

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