The autumn season is different in the Sonoran Desert than it is elsewhere. Most of the United States is preparing for the onslaught of cold where plants go into a dormant phase. Not so here in the valley of the sun! The opposite is quite true.
Veteran gardeners of our summers know that we just try to get plants to survive through the summertime heat. Autumn is when life starts blooming again and to thrive around here. Cooler temperatures and less direct sun brings growth to our beloved desert. Gardening life begins anew in this area with three seasons of growing – fall, winter, and spring all have growth options for gardeners.
Our church life changes in the autumn season, too. Our winter friends start returning and our year-long friends emerge and go outside.
Something happens in a life planted deep in the soil of God’s love. It is surprising and unexplainable — yet utterly predictable.
Deep within such a life stirs a silent, mysterious, and powerful force. It is the force of life itself. You look at what seems to be a barren branch, and you see, amazingly, buds beginning to emerge.
Those buds transform themselves in short order into flowers, and the flowers into fruit. Eventually, the tree is so heavily laden that its branches reach down, as though to bestow their burden as a gift to the first passerby.
“The Fruit of the Spirit,” says the Apostle Paul in Galatians 5:22-23, is “Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-control.” Such are the gifts that begin to emerge from a life turned Godward. It’s not so much that we disciples go out and energetically practice these things, training like Olympians to shave a few nanoseconds off our time. No, these wondrous gifts simply emerge, gracefully, as the product of the wondrous alchemy of sun and soil and water.
Blessed with the fruit of the Spirit, how are you and I going to share our gifts as we move into this growing season? Which ways will we grow? It’s an exciting time to be the church. I’m glad to partner with you in the ministry of The Church of the Palms.
Shalom, Paul