Fruit Basket Life

Picture by Caprice Miller

But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,  gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!  Galatians 5:22-23

It’s really great to be the recipient of a gift.  Especially one you can share.  Those gift baskets full of food products you get at Christmas are a great example of a “gift to share”.  But sometimes those can be a little “dicey”.  The contents of the multiple little packages in the basket are…well….lacking.  It’s not always fresh, most are those “special occasion foods” that aren’t always the healthiest for us, and then some are just not tasty.  And then you find out that the rest of the basket is just full of paper and foam peanuts.  But then there’s the fruit basket – it’s all there in front of you.  No extra packages containing something artificial or just not enough of.  No questions of if you will like everything in it or not.  You know the fruit, you love the fruit and it is ready to consume and….BONUS….it’s all really good for you!  It’s a no guilt, no disappointment gift that you want to share with everyone.

In a sense, we can look at these baskets as a representation of our lives.   We can choose to have a life full of artificial experiences or we can choose a life full of abundance - a fruit basket life.  I don’t want it to be full of artificial experiences that leave me lacking joy and fulfillment.  I don’t want to look below the surface of my life and find just a bunch of paper and foam peanuts.  When someone looks under the surface of my life, I want them to see what holds it together – Jesus Christ.  When we make the choice to step into a relationship with Christ, we can’t help but experience a difference in our lives.   I don’t want my life to be just on the surface any longer.  I want my relationship with Christ to be evident to the world around me because I want to share what I have received.  I do this by sharing the “fruit of the Spirit” – that desire to show to others “…love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control…”. 

I have to face reality though.  I mess up sometimes and do the opposite of what I want to do.  Chances are you do too.  But don’t get frustrated.  It’s important to realize that being able to display and share these fruits in our lives is a process.  These fruits grow as our relationship with Christ grows.  So if we are really serious about allowing this fruit to grow in our lives so we can share it, we have to be intentional about knowing where it comes from.  How?  Read His Word – The Bible.  Pray.  Talk to others who can help you.  Before long, you too could have an abundant fruit basket life to share.