2020, the year of the pandemic, COVID-19. This year has left us feeling our need for Jesus in a unique way. Some days have felt overwhelming…uncertain. The summer felt like it may never end, but God showed me His faithfulness in the most unlikely way.
We’ve lived on our homestead for two years. Most everything here requires hard work. Raising animals, growing food, remodeling this worn and neglected house all takes planning and lots of labor.
One day, in late spring, my children and I took an afternoon walk out to our back acreage and we found a gift. Perhaps an ordinary thing to some, but, to us, it was a gift. We discovered acres of blackberries! We hadn’t seen these berries the year before and we didn’t plan or work for them. They were everywhere! I’ve never seen so many blackberries in all my life! It gave us all something fun to do as a family, when nothing was open or available. We made cobblers and pies. We offered berries to friends and family. We sat in the field and picked them and stained our faces and hands with their sweet juice. We had such an abundance, we were even able to freeze some. When I pull the bounty from the freezer to make pies this winter, I’ll remember how in the middle of uncertainty and sadness, God gave us a gift that we did not have to put any effort into.
And, down the road, I’ll remind myself that if He did it once, He will do it again. God’s faithfulness takes different forms in each season of life, but, in the summer of 2020, it looked like acres of blackberries. Blackberries sweet and plump that stained my children’s smiles and fingers purple with delight. Blackberries that will stain my memory with the goodness of God.
~Trisha Bowman
Christ Fellowship