You Don't Always Get to Pick

My daughter arrives indoors with the ripest, most juiciest blackberry I've ever seen. She pops it in her mouth and says, "See, I told you. They're still growing."

It's mid-November. It's supposed to snow tomorrow. We've had frost and freezing temperatures for weeks.

How, oh how can this be?

I finally brave the cold and venture out to the old blackberry patch this afternoon. I see the truth for myself. For whatever reason, this branch produces fruit when everyone says it should not. It's not the right time! These aren't the right circumstances!

And yet. 

I'm reminded that sometimes, we don't get to pick the when and how of our own fruitfulness. Sometimes, the fruitful season comes just as we're ready to hibernate. Sometimes, it comes just when we think we're too withered and too empty to produce a thing.

God's Spirit does whatever He pleases, whenever He pleases, and however He pleases.

I don't get to pick. But I do get the joy of seeing something marvelous happen that was never supposed to happen in this way, at this time.

Those glorious ripening blackberries represent a truth I needed to remember today.