Messages all around me.

     Sometimes we need to take the time to smell the roses.  Mine aren't blooming yet this year but when they do I'll be out there sniffing their scents.  I'll be careful to avoid the bees!  The message is to let the bees do their thing and for me to enjoy the best of both world.   I can see the beauty God created in both the roses and the bees.  Did you know that the design of a bee's honey comb is one of the strongest structural designs in all of creation?  Did you know that honey is one of the most complete foods that we can eat?  Did you know that bees are responsible for pollination of many other plants from which we can get food?  All of this because I have roses that I like to stop and smell sometimes.  Life is both simple and complicated like that.  It's a different kind of analogy but our lives interspersed in the world (Christian lives) do much the same function.  The question is whether anyone stops long enough to smell the roses of your life.  If I were a bee would I be attracted to you?  Would I use your pollen to make sweet honey?  Would what you have be passed onto others?  What kind of fruit could your life yield?  It's not so much about taking the time to smell the roses as much as it's all about the total package. 
     Jesus talks about fruit and vines, trees and fruit, and our lives and the fruit that we are to yield.  My roses are planted strategically next to my garden, orchard and blueberry bushes.  Not put there by mistake or where they would "look best" in landscape design.  They were, because they attract bees, put there so that the pollination between all of the creation that demands cross pollination could benefit.  Imagine no fruit on the pear, apple, plum, blueberry, raspberry, and other plants that demand pollination.  Imagine your children not being pollinated by the Gospel or your neighbor being able to see the fruit of the Spirit in your life or my life?  Imagine a world where there are no bees (Christians) to carry out that function.  The world without Christ would come to be.  The very essence of creation is dependent on the pollination and cross-pollination of Christians with each other and with those who do not know Jesus.  That's the way God designed the world and those in it. 
     I'm not a very patient man.  I went out to the orchard yesterday and saw the tiny cherries forming on their branches.  I want cherries now!  I went to the garden where the blueberry bushes are forming up tiny blueberries on their branches.  I want blueberries now!  I have issues in my life that I want resolved now!  But that doesn't happen either.  You see, there are so many things that are dependent upon one another in order to get to the place where the fruit is ready.  The Bible says that we need to hear the word, accept the word and live in the word in order to be able to bear fruit.  That means we have the seed planted, the plant grows, maybe years come and go before maturity comes and finally fruit is born.  There is no telling the timing of God in your and my life.  He brings us into and through life for reasons we cannot and do not see.  Ultimately the Christian should be of such a frame of mind that they are ready to show the reason for their belief and hope that is found in Christ Jesus.  Being, as Paul says, ready, instant in and out of season to share the hope we have within us.  The fruit.  Hope is a fruit.  It has no calories!  Yet, it's sweet and we love to enjoy fruit.  We love to enjoy hope. 
     The messages are all around me.  What do I do with them?  Do I keep them to myself and just enjoy my world by myself for my own pleasure?  Do I share them with others so that they too can have the hope that I have found?  What do I do with the fruit in my life?  If I try and hoard it then it does no good for anyone except me.  We all have choices of whether we want others to know we are Christian through the lives we live.  Do they see the seeds you are planting?  Do they enjoy the process of you growing to maturity?  Do they enjoy the fruit that comes from your life?  Does Jesus?  It's been and always will be your choice and my choice.  Bee someone who makes the choice for Jesus.