Wait For The Sweet Fruit

As I bit into the beautiful apricot, I was expecting the sweet familiarity of a fruit I have known all my life, but instead, I received an explosion of sour. I knew it was still early in the year for the best apricots when I purchased a bag full at my local market. I made the premature purchase because I wanted the first taste of an apricot to come and usher in the beginning of my summer. I had rushed something that needed more time to become the sweet fruit I was expecting. I was disappointed, but not surprised. You cannot rush the maturity of fruit.

As a young boy, I picked apricots during the summer. I spent many hours atop a ladder in the orchards surrounding Los Gatos, California. My first ritual during those early mornings was to climb to the top of my ladder and pick a perfectly ripe apricot still covered with morning dew. It would be hard to describe the taste to you if the only apricot you have known came from a store. Only an apricot eaten in the fullness of its perfection and picked straight from a tree, can provide such an experience.

While the sour taste of the unripened apricot filled my mouth the Lord said, “Tell them to wait for the sweet fruit.” Upon hearing those words, I sensed something prophetic being given to me for people whose lives are beginning to bear new fruit in a new season. You have waited a long time to finally see the fruit that is beginning to appear on the vine of your labor, but it is still too early. Your fruit is still maturing. It looks like mature fruit, but it does not carry the sweet impact God intends. God is using this time to bring your fruit to a fullness of flavor. He is asking you to wait just a little longer. Once you taste what God has done in these final days of maturing you will understand why He asked you to wait before you begin your harvest.