From birth, the only thing we know for sure is that we are going to get older and die.
At this time of year, the term “ripening” comes to mind. All the processes leading up to harvest ensure that ripening will produce quality re-turns.
Yet, when it comes to our own lives, the older we get, the more we grumble and complain and act as if in-structions to follow a healthy diet and do our exercises are fads that can be ignored.
The hymn writer Natalie Sleeth encourages us to recognize our God-given potential: “In the bulb there is a flower, in the seed an apple tree …”
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And for us, “In our end is our beginning… unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.”
Instead of growing into maturity with a cloud of grumbles over our heads, we could make a difference if we were to challenge each other to reach toward the sunshine, to drink of the rain and to find ways to nurture each other when life is challenging.
I think of the way prairie vegetation and litter protect and nurture each other in the face of extreme drought, harsh winds and biting cold so that each piece of vegetation on a hillside can ripen in the way God intended.
Patti Tana left instructions to scatter her ashes in the garden “so I can be near my loves…
“If you come in my garden on an August afternoon, pluck a bright red globe, let the juice run down your chin and the seeds stick to your cheek.”
When she dies she wants folks to smile and say, “That Patti, she sure was some tomato!”
We are “created in the image of God and loved and cared for by the Creator.”
May we ripen to the best of our potential.
