Notice the picture I took up above? The ripened juicy and quite tasty berries are surrounded by hard, green blackberries that have not completed their journey. Clinging stubbornly to their runners, they're nearly impossible to detach. And why would you want to pick these berries anyway? Bright green, extraordinarily sour, they're not good for much. I wondered why some berries took in all the water and the sunshine given them and became what they were meant to become when right along next to them, receiving water and sunlight in equal measure, others did not flourish. They did not grow. They did not progress. Their skins hardened and refused entry to the water and the life-giving sunlight and they stopped growing.
I think people are a great deal like these blackberries. Two siblings, living side by side with the same parents, the same love and devotion and spiritual instruction, sometimes do not receive the Word in the same manner and therefore do not complete their journey and become what they were meant to be. It doesn't mean that they won't eventually get where they need to be, but it does mean a great deal more effort needs to be made in order to overcome the hardness of heart and the 'greenness' of their spiritual desires.
Some may need more time, others immediately grasp the sunshine and the water and all the marvelous nutrients gifted them and burst forth into glorious sweet blackberries. They fulfill the measure of their creation.
I try to take in the good given me, taught me, gifted me and do something with it. Other times I'm like the hard green berries that don't allow the sunlight in. I hope that one day I'll have none of the hard green parts and all of the sweetness of a faithful Saint who has fulfilled the measure of her creation.
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Go ahead....tell me the truth :)