Beyond Blueberries

I just returned from picking blueberries with my wife at a "blueberry farm" near our home in Ancaster. Unfortunately this gorgeous 10.6 acre piece of property is up for sale and that will most likely mean the end of the blueberries and another unnecessary multi-million dollar real estate development on prime agricultural land. But until that sad day comes we are thankful for the berries that we are able to pick in the summer and enjoy with our family and friends the rest of the year.

What struck me this year as I was going up and down between the rows of bushes and filling my buckets with berries was the abundance of the Lord's provision. There were berries everywhere and there are many more to ripen in the days ahead. Some had already fallen on the ground around the bushes. Others had been enjoyed by the birds. And still others were being picked by people like myself to be eaten in the future. God is not stingy. There was a bountiful supply.

What is true when it comes to blueberries is also true in many other areas of life. God gives and gives and gives some more to creatures who have forfeited any right to anything from his hand. He gives because he is a God of grace and mercy, and because he loves his creatures and desires that they turn to him. The Bible makes very clear that this world is not what God intended it to be because of human rebellion. But the same the scriptures proclaim that good news that God has sent his Son to rescue all those who look to him.

Every evidence of abundance in the natural realm should remind those who know the gospel of an even greater abundance in the spiritual realm. The apostle Paul put it this way: "Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won't he also give us everything else?" (Romans 8:32). As wonderful as blueberries are, what God has done for us in Jesus Christ is greater and sweeter still.