the heart of a tomato...

The other day I was cutting up tomatoes for a batch of salsa. The phone rang, so I laid down the knife and left the kitchen for a couple of minutes. Upon returning, I picked up the knife and was about to finish chopping the tomato, and this is what I saw sitting on the cutting board:

I love it! :) One of those surprise moments of seeing God's love for me in the shape of a random heart in my daily life. They never cease to delight me!

When thinking about a verse that might go with the photo, I automatically thought of Galatians 5 and the fruit of the Spirit. But I decided to do a little digging and see if there was any other reference to fruit and love I could find. This is the one I discovered:

Sow for yourselves righteousness,

reap the fruit of unfailing love,

and break up your unplowed ground;

for it is time to seek the LORD,

until He comes

and showers righteousness on you.

~Hosea 10:12

I love the likening of our pursuit of God to the process of planting -- sowing righteousness, breaking up the fallow ground, reaping love, being rained upon.

It is about preparing our hearts for God, for the harvest He grows within us! It is about seeking Him and receiving the showers He pours upon us... and it is about the harvest He brings about through us when we are obedient to His call to the fields in our hearts and lives!

All this good food for my soul from the heart of a little tomato...

taste and see that the Lord is good!

love, sweet love....

I was munching on some blueberries today, enjoying my day's supply of vitamins and antioxidants.... and look what I found!!!!

I do LOVE blueberries...
...and I think they LOVE me, too!!

(and tell me, how can that NOT make you smile?!)

fruit-ful lessons...

When I was in Georgia, we went one day to visit the YWAM (Youth With A Mission) students and staff in the village where they were staying for their ministry outreach. While we were there chatting with a couple of them, a local village man stopped by for a chat. He brought with him a large bag of home-grown cherries as a gift.

While he was in the "visiting" room enjoying a cup of turkish coffee and conversation with one of the students, my sister and I were in the other room chatting with another, D. D had brought in a bowl full of the cherries the visitor had brought, and we began to happily munch on them as we talked. They were juicy and sweet--very delicious! I think I had eaten six or seven when suddenly D discovered that one of hers had a small white worm in it!

So, to play it safe, we started opening each cherry before eating it, only to discover that EACH and EVERY one of those cherries had a live worm in it!! Uh, yeah. That means I probably ate at least six or seven live worms!! (I must admit I wasn't so eager to eat any more of the delicious cherries!)

Also while in Georgia, I kept seeing a strange round yellow fruit at the outdoor markets. Always game to try new foods, I ended up buying some. Each fruit had a couple of large seeds inside and the flesh was sort of soft and sweet, tasting kind of like a pear and a pineapple. They were yummy though they weren't very beautiful to look at:

As I was looking at my photos, I ran across these two photos of fruit-- one looking very delicious and pretty and the other not so pretty and even, perhaps, a little unappetizing. It was interesting to me that they were actually the opposite of what they seemed to be-- the pretty ones had worms inside (though still tasty, if you don't mind the added protein!) and the unattractive ones were sweet and yummy.

The thought came to mind that this is a great example of the "things of the world" vs "the things of God." The things of the world--wealth, success, possessions, even sin--seem so lovely, so appealing, so desirable. Yet, they are not what brings us health, peace, and true joy--there is a wormy core to them. Whereas, many times the things of God--sacrifice, obedience, suffering, service--seem so unattractive to our eyes; they do not cause us to eagerly reach out for them or to embrace them. Yet, these are the very things which bring us closer to God Himself...and give us peace, joy, and life!

I want to be eager to taste the things of God--even if they don't look so wonderful or tasty on the surface! I know they are what will bring life to my soul and joy to my heart! I pray that we may hunger for more of God, however that may be packaged!

But the fruit of the Spirit is

love, joy, peace, patience,

kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

gentleness and self-control.

~Galatians 5:22-23a

orange you glad?

Orange you glad it's Saturday??

Orange you "LOVIN' " it??

My friends who live in Phoenix found this in their grocery bag and were wonderful enough to do as I would-- PHOTOGRAPH it!! They then sent this "love"ly juicy photo to me! My heart is warmed by their message of "love"!

Happy Saturday, all! : )

sweet heart...

This is what I found in my basket of strawberries this morning...

I love it when God says ...

"Let me call you Sweet Heart!"

Thank You, Lord, for Your amazing love that I find in such unexpected ways and places! (175)

today's post dedicated to my friend, Stardust!

this one's for YOU! :)

root canals, pretty pictures, and happy thoughts...

I don't know how YOUR day was today, but mine began with a root canal. Not exactly a fun way to start off a work day. But, well, some days are just like that...

After holding my mouth 'open WIDE' for a couple of hours, trying not to drool, tensely anticipating a fiery jolt of pain at any moment, and many quick prayers shot up to the heavens, the procedure was over, and I was on my way to work. It really wasn't bad...the endodontist was kind; there was no jolt of pain (hooray for Novacain!); and there were only a couple of times when it felt as though he were reaching all the way to my brain with those tiny little files! All in all, it wasn't fun, but it wasn't terrible either.

And, though I now feel like someone punched me in the cheekbone, I and my office mates did get quite a few laughs today as a result of my endodontal experience. You see, right about the time the procedure was over, the Novacain took full effect... and I swear the entire left half of my HEAD was numb and my face felt as though it were hanging off my skull through the rest of the day! I looked like a stroke victim, and the others in my office got quite a kick out of my droopy eye and crooked smile. They kept checking in on me throughout the day to see how my numb face was reviving... and to laugh at the lack of progress!

So, for today, because I truly believe the endodontist may have filed away bits of my brain as I find I am semi-incapable of thinking clearly enough to be either deep or clever, I shall post pretty pictures... for happy thoughts... and mindless visual entertainment...

pretty flowers
delicious fruit

soft furry companions

beautiful blue

chilly ice crystals

brilliant orange!!

amazing patterns (abalone)

... and raindrops on roses!

These are a few of my favorite things! They give me such happy thoughts! I hope you found a bit of enjoyment in them, too...

the apple of His eye...

I know it's technically fall. Most of us bloggers have already welcomed fall and made a big deal about the end of summer and the advent of autumn. Southern California, however, has refused to 'get with the program!' Oh, I thought it had begun... the days are definitely shorter, and the nights had begun to get cooler. Then, all of a sudden this week we're having upper 80's to mid 90's for temperatures!! Summer is holding on with its very fingertips!

I decided to let it still be summer this week by defying the unwritten (or possibly written) fashion rule--I wore a white skirt and strappy white sandals to work today! I know, those of you in the midwest and east coast of the US are probably greatly appalled at my lack of fashion sense! But, well, when it acts like summer, I just continue to dress like it! : )

Nonetheless, I am taking on a bit of a fall theme today ...apples. Having grown up in Michigan, which has many, many apple orchards and very delicious apples, I associate apples with the crisp, cool autumn air and autumn leaves. I always loved to go to the orchard in the fall for fresh apple cider (the stuff in the store just doesn't compare!) and homemade donuts and to maybe catch a hayride through the orchard or watch kids try to find their way through a cornfield maze. Pumpkin patches bursting with pumpkins and corn shalks standing around complete the fall festival feel.

Ah, reminiscing... I can almost smell the donuts and cider if I close my eyes!

Then there is the old phrase about something/someone being "... the apple of my eye." It is a very old phrase, and originally, it meant "the central aperture of the eye." Figuratively, it refers to something, or more usually someone, that is cherished above others. What a beautiful sentiment. Cherished above others. Special. Loved greatly.

I love that God also uses it in the Bible. He uses is about His people, those whom He loves:

In a desert land he found him, in a barren and howling waste. He shielded him and cared for him; he guarded him as the apple of his eye... ~Deuteronomy 32:10

The psalmist also used the phrase regarding his relationship with God, how God viewed him...

Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings. ~Psalm 17:8

It was also used in the Bible as a reminder to cherish God's teachings and His commands:

Keep my commands and you will live; guard my teachings as the apple of your eye. ~Proverbs 7:2

And lastly, God Himself uses the phrase to declare His love for His people... to demonstrate how He holds them/us dear and precious in His sight:

For this is what the LORD Almighty says: "After he has honored me and has sent me against the nations that have plundered you—for whoever touches you touches the apple of his eye... ~Zechariah 2:8

I am so glad I am cherished in such a way that God declares His love for me by calling me the apple of His eye! What a delight to be so cherished... I am the apple of Someone's eye!

(and how about these really cool BLACK apples!! They're called Arkansas Blacks...wonderfully unique, aren't they?!)

lemon head...

I have a bowl of 'fruit' sitting on the table. Well, actually, it's a bowl of fake fruit, but they are very real-looking, and from a distance, one would think they were (real, that is!). I do have a habit of also tossing my REAL lemons and oranges on top of the other fruit in the bowl, and sometimes, I forget that I have real fruit in sitting in the bowl with the fake. And, no, there's nothing wrong with that, unless, as I also have a habit of doing, I forget the real fruit long enough for it to begin to resemble the stuff of science projects--meaning it begins to turn strange colors and grow a bit of mold on it!

Well, this morning, as I was walking into the kitchen, I passed the fruit bowl and noticed that I had, once again, started a science project. One of the lemons had begun to turn a bit white and green with mold. Not at all disturbed, I picked the penicillin-producing lemon out of the bowl, opened the trash can, casually tossed it in, and closed the lid. And that was that!

I finished getting ready for work and was clearing some junk mail off the table before leaving. I opened the trash can lid to toss in the junk mail and burst out laughing!! This is what I saw gazing back up at me from inside the trash can:

Yeah, Mr. Lemonhead, that's exactly how I feel some mornings!! : ) He does look a bit shell-shocked, doesn't he?! (I guess it was a trashy morning for him!)

I hope you enjoyed my fruity little friend as much as I... I do so love the delightfully quirky things in life! Happy Friday!!