Picking Mulberries

You can learn a lot from a mulberry!

I’m staying with my sister while we work on her house. We have a large, mature mulberry tree in the back, and its mulberry season here!

I love mulberries. They are so sweet, almost too sweet! They must have some sodium in them and low acid. But whatever they have, I love them to death!

But one thing I’ve learned, you must be careful how you pick them. Their skin is very soft and fragile. And another thing is that just because they are pitch black and look ripe doesn’t mean they are ready to let go of the branch. Some berries have stems that are still too strong and if you force the berry off the tree, it smushes in your fingers. When that happens, neither do you get to eat the berry because it is ruined, nor will it be available the next day or whenever the stem is weaker.

No sooner does one come to Christ than there is born within him a desire to make known to others what a precious friend he has found in Jesus. The saving and sanctifying truth cannot be shut in his heart. The most earnest desire is to let others share in the most wonderful gift, that is, a better life. And as others come to trust the Savior, we find a great joy in fellowshipping with them.

Yet our zeal for something better for our loved ones cannot overlook the importance of giving them the freedom to think about it before deciding to accept or reject it. Our effort in fruit picking must be gentle. We don’t know the minds of people. We don’t comprehend their attachments to the world around them. So we must tug at their heart, and they must know it; we must make the invitation plain—but gently. Roughly handling the word of God as His representative breaks His third commandment. “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh His name in vain.”

Roughly leading a person to Christ runs contrary to the spirit and method of Jesus, of whom it was beautifully prophesied, “A bruised reed shall He not break, and the smoking flax shall He not quench: He shall bring forth judgment unto truth.” (Is. 42:3) And it receives the gentle rebuke He gave James and John, “For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them. And they went to another village.” (Lk. 9:56).

Oh, how our Savior must sorrow when He loses a soul because we were in haste and unnecessarily overexposed them to truth. Oh, how difficult it must be for Him to bear with our ineptitude at gathering fruit for His kingdom. He loves us and forgives us, but He also loves those candidates for heaven that we prevent from entering into a most wonderful relationship with Him. It isn’t easy work being Intercessor for a confused world of sinners.

“Thou hast also given me the shield of Thy salvation: and Thy right hand hath holden me up, and Thy gentleness hath made me great.” (Ps. 18:35).

It is when we see His gentleness toward us, despite the damage we’ve done in working contrary to His methods, that we begin to change into His marvelous image and lose our childish, irresponsible ways. And then we work hard to undo all the tragedies we created toward our neighbor during our bad attempts to serve Jesus while not abiding in Him. By His grace are we saved from ourselves.