Today’s Devotional Written By a Young Woman On A Journey To Completion: Tracy Koweh
Blood is Thicker then Water
Sometimes God will Pluck the Apple off of the Tree
Genesis 1:11 (New Living Translation)
11 Then God said, “Let the land sprout with vegetation—every sort of seed-bearing plant, and trees that grow seed-bearing fruit. These seeds will then produce the kinds of plants and trees from which they came.” And that is what happened.
"One bad apple spoils the whole bunch," is an old wives tale that has been said for years, but there is some truth to it. Scientifically speaking, if a rotten apple is placed in a basket with good apples, it will contaminate the entire basket. The question of the day though, is this: “What happens when the apple is growing on a rotten tree”? How can a good apple be produced from a tree rooted in darkness?
The answer is only through the grace of Jesus. As many of you already know from past blogs, Jaida looks nothing look me, in fact she is an exact photocopy of her father :o). The crazy thing though is that in every other way, she is an exact photocopy of me. But as much as I would love to be able to take my bow of praise from that comment, some of my traits she has picked up are ones I’m not too proud of.
As her mother it is my responsibility to check the fruit that is growing as a result of my tree. As I am beginning to grow more in Christ and God is working on some of my generational behavioral traits, I see that God is also changing these same traits in Jai. The problem is that most times when we identify problems we want to blame the seed, and then throw away the fruit. When we do this we are never looking at the source that fed into the fruit becoming rotten. It’s so easy for us to say, “Do as I say and not as I do”, but it is as wrong as two left feet. How confused we as Christians would we be if God instructed us to follow Him in this way.? "I’m not going to fast my child, but I want you to. I’m not a holy or righteous God, but I’m requiring you to be." Boy what a mess that would be; likewise it is a mess when we do it.
I am so thankful that God decided to pluck me from the tree in which I was produced and re-plant me so that I can change the fruit of future generations to come. I often ask why He choose me, but in many ways, I believe it’s because I choose Him. Confessing our own sins, shortcomings, and insecurities is an extremely difficult thing to do, but when we have someone else depending on us for strength, direction, and guidance, we need to allow God to fix what is broken, heal what is diseased, so that we can be worth following, worth growing from.
Just as an apple doesn't ask to be on a particular tree, children don’t either. We planted the seeds and thought it would be great to watch a tree sprout in our back yard. But after awhile we stop watering it, stop protecting it from pests and other dangers, because it started to take up too much time, that we needed to live our own lives. Funny thing is, that many of us want to be able to grow up and one day live off that very same piece of fruit that has no real nutrients or substance in it, because we didn’t have the time to care for it when it was ours to attend to.
Today as we look at ourselves, ask these question; am I producing good fruit? Is my fruit packed with destiny or death? I strongly encourage us all to get our gardens right for ourselves first, so that those who come after us will be nourished and not neglected. God is hand picking some apples and replanting them so they will have a chance to flourish and produce a whole new type of fruit. Are our roots planted in His word, or are our roots just getting in the way of God rooting us.?
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