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A deep delight of my week in Oxford is walking with bags in hand over cobbled roads to a local, open air market near my home. Row after row of bright, ripe produces entices me. as I pick out “fresh from the local farm garden” produce from local farmers. The market is overflowing with fresh fruit, veggies, goat and feta cheeses freshly pressed. But the farmers gathered there tell me that when you take enough time to plant seeds in the right season, water, fertilize and protect, and wait, you will be rewarded with the fruit of the earth.
Vegetables and fruit straight from the earth take time to grow and then to ripen. The taste is so much more delicious when you allow something the time to ripen before you pluck it out of the ground.
And so it is with life. Growing takes time. Growing and waiting for the ripe moment requires hard work and patience. We are so very used to an instant gratification sort of life that we often quit on something before it has had proper time to grow. Character building and training takes time. For a child to move from banging on the piano to playing Beethoven well at a concert requires years and years.
My friend, Jennifer Dukes Lee, has written a wonderful book that helps remind us to wait patiently, to thrive as we grow slow and wait to see how God will unearth his miracles little by little. Talking to her made me breathe a little bit deeper, slow down, rest in the moment. It is in accepting God’s ways of growth that we will find peace, hope and blessing.
