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"I have a little lemon"I have a little lemon. And by that, I mean, I have a little lemon tree and it has produced a little lemon. I guess this sounds like I’m bragging. And well it should because I am. I am very proud of my little lemon tree. My lemon tree has had a hard life. There has been great struggle and hardship. The first winter my little lemon tree sat too close to the window and all the branches withered away from the cold. That spring I cut my little lemon tree back to nothing but a trunk. It was one bare trunk about ten inches long. To be honest my little lemon tree made Charlie Brown’s Christmas tree look majestic and full. I almost gave up hope. But God is good; and the next spring small branches began to shoot out from that bare trunk. By the end of the summer there were many new branches and leaves. Now I am not trying to say that my poor little lemon tree was not affected by that rough first winter. The scars of that hardship were easy to see. But God is good; the tree may be scarred but it is alive and growing. Not only is it growing but it is producing fruit. Yes! Praise God and halleluiah! On my little lemon tree, I have a little lemon. Truth be told I must brag again for I have not just one little lemon on my tree but two. Of the many blooming flowers, two clung to life and slowly grew. And grew. And grew. I have learned over the last year that lemons are slow growers, though it does not help that mine is an indoor tree. It never bothered me over the last year as I watched the small bud grow into a round green fruit. And for the longest time things did not appear to change as the fruit simply clung to the branch. It did not bother me. I certainly was not going to retire from my crop of two lemons once harvest came in so why rush. That was easy to do when things did not appear to be changing. Time just went on. But the change began first on the inside as the fruit developed. I could not see a difference until that inward ripening began to be reflected on the outside. At first it was just a faint yellowish hue, almost impossible to see amidst the green. And on the inside things continued to develop and ripen. Now that I could see a difference, I began to get excited. I did some research and learned that lemon will only develop on the tree. Unlike many other fruits, lemons do not continue to ripen once they are harvested. Lemons need to stay connected to the branch to be fed and grow. It does not matter my excitement. I cannot rush a lemon. It does no good to place it in a bag, or the crisper, on a dark shelf, or a sunny windowsill. Nothing I can do will speed up the process. I must take my joy today in the growth I see, the life I see growing in front of me. God created the lemon tree in its own perfection. And when I do not interfere with God’s plan and allow God’s timing to work, I am blessed with the delicious fruit of God’s plan for creation. I look at my lemons every day. I watch them grow, each at their own speed. I wait. I know that if I do not interfere, if I do not allow my flesh, my excitement to get ahead of God, in due season I will have a perfect little lemon. As God intended. Love, Pastor Drew
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