Oh, How Quickly We Forget: A Confession

I'm rolling my eyes as I look out to the garden. I have to harvest the berries again. 

It takes so long.

I get so dirty.

Then I have to store them.

Lord, why do we have all these berries?

Can you believe how quickly I can forget my longing for a berry garden? Can you believe how quickly joy and celebration turn to complaint and drudgery?

So very quickly.

For years, we lovingly cared for the soil, the new shoots, and the blossoms. We expertly staked and fed and watered and waited.

Strawberry Patch

Blackberries On the Way

Raspberries Just Emerging

Blueberries! 

Now the harvest has come and is coming. Now the thing I've waited for arrives in my palms, and I just roll my eyes, exhausted by it. 

Oh, how I need a Savior! The human heart wants what it does not have and balks at it when it gets it. We can turn every gift into a burden. We can turn every blessing into a complaint.  

As I pick strawberries and see the red juice stain my fingers, I recall how quickly the thing we long for consumes us, becomes too much, and sours in our hands. 

Even the berries carry the curse.

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Do you often complain about the very thing you asked to have?