Disciples, Apostles, and Saints!
Every year, right after school gets out, right around the first week of June, I take the family to Ditzler Orchard to pick strawberries. It’s a family tradition. We received the disappointing news this week that the crop hasn’t worked out this year. A good spring turned to drought has left the pickings extraordinarily slim.
It brings to mind that crazy winter a decade ago, when we saw 80 degree weather in February! In Michigan! Everything started to bloom early. Then March came in and killed it all.
That year, my family went up to Traverse City around Cherry Festival time. For the first time, they imported cherries from Poland. Unbelievable.
Talking with a clerk, I mentioned the crazy weather. She said it took out 90% of their crop. Oof, I said. That’s tough. Then she told me that a blight came and took out 90% of what survived. I was speechless.
It seems as if we don’t notice this stuff until it effects us. But that doesn’t speak to the whole of it. We only seem to care when it is present. Because we’ve experienced droughts before. We just prefer to think we never will again.
Our faith teaches us to prepare. And to recognize that scarcity and abundance both happen. But more than these, it teaches us that our work, what makes us remarkable, is to share, heal, and help each other grow. So it isn’t just us and our families. But our neighbors and our planet.
With love,
Drew