Technorati Tags: spiritual fruit

I see so many people with so many gifts that are causing their branches to sag.  I look around at the people I know, and I see so much fruit sitting on the vine, just waiting to be picked and consumed.  But why is the fruit not being picked?

I have an answer.  Have you ever seen the Wizard of Oz?  Do you remember the scene where Dorothy is walking through the forest?  She us hungry, and she sees apples on trees.  As she attempts to pick an apple, the tree whacks her.  Have you ever seen the Harry Potter movie where Harry and Ron are flying around in Mr. Weasley’s car, and they crash into the tree.  And the tree begins to flail, whooping up on Harry and Ron and the car? 

I think that there are many fruit-filled Christians who, when someone attempts to pick their fruit, beat the crap out of the picker.  I think that many of us (’cause I know I’m guilty of this at times too) become possessive of their fruit.  I know that there are times when I am proud of the fruit hanging on my tree.  It’s my fruit, after all, not your fruit.  Right? 

Wrong.  The fruit that is on my branches is meant for you, for the woman at Wawa, for the parking attendant, for the sister who is hurting.  The fruit that is on my tree isn’t from me.  It is fruit that God has placed on my tree.  I cannot eat the fruit on my tree.  That would be cannibalism.