Smoke season has arrived. As I was getting ready this morning, I could see a smoky haze wafting across the backyard and hanging in the air.
I mentioned in yesterday’s blog post that we do not have AC in our house … which means we rely heavily on opening the windows to let the cool air from outside in to cool the house down (especially at night).
But during smoke season we don’t really want to open the windows because all the smoke gets in the house and makes it just as hard to breathe inside as outside.
As I stood looking out the windows this morning at the haze of smoke hanging in the air, the verse popped into my mind:
“A person’s work will be shown for what it is, because the Day [of Judgment] will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work.” – 1 Corinthians 3:13
Obviously, I’m still sad about the bad watermelon I had to throw out yesterday. (which I wrote about in yesterday’s blog post) The watermelon looked like a good watermelon from the outside. I “thumped” it and it sounded like a good watermelon (as best as I could tell). But when I cut it open to enjoy the delicious sweetness … alas, it was bad on the inside. Sadness.
This is like a lot of people who put on all the pretenses of being a “good religious” person. They look just like a “good watermelon” … they sound just like a “good watermelon … but on the inside they are ick. There is badness on the inside.
As the smoke hangs in the air outside, the above verse in 1 Corinthians 3:13 reiterates that even though a person might look “good” by all outward appearance, God knows the heart … God sees the heart. And on the Day of Judgment it will be revealed that the “good watermelon” was in reality bad on the inside.
Tying in with this, yesterday morning I was out in the garden cutting back all the strawberry runners. I am very aggravated with the strawberry plants!
The strawberry plants have put on pretenses this year of being “really good strawberry plants.” They have grown big and bushy and green. But they didn’t produce a harvest at all this year. Not one strawberry. None.
Oh, but by all outward appearances they are the biggest, best strawberry plants there ever were. They look so fantastic. And not only that, they are sending out runners and runners and more runners.
Already this year I’ve been out in the garden twice now cutting off all the obnoxious runners going everywhere. Yesterday was my third time to cut the runners.
My response to the “super pious” strawberries is this: produce fruit.
If you’re really “all that” … then produce fruit.
It brings to mind this verse: “When John [the Baptizer] saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees [aka: the super pious religious people] coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: ‘You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.’” – Matthew 3:7-8
This also brings to mind Jesus’s parable: “Then Jesus told this parable: ‘A man had a fig tree, planted in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any. So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, “For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?” “Sir,” the man replied, “leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.”’” – Luke 13:6-9
Here you can see the clippings of strawberry runners from the whole bunch of strawberry plants which didn’t produce any fruit at all this year. No one strawberry. But lots and lots of runners. Lots and lots of pretense. Lots and lots of “good show” of what “ really good strawberry plants” they are.
As I gathered up the worthless strawberry runners to toss in the bushes to “bake” in the sun and in the 94* heat of the day … it brought to mind Jesus’s parable of the Sheep and the Goats from Matthew 25:31-46 concerning the end Judgment.
Just like the worthless strawberry runners were gathered up and tossed aside to “bake” in the sun … so also, at the final Judgment this very thing is what Jesus is going to do.
Those people who have all the pretenses of being a “good watermelon” or of being a “good strawberry plant” will face Jesus Christ, and Jesus will look at their life to see if their “watermelon” was actually “good fruit” on the inside. Was holiness and righteousness on the inside?? Likewise, Jesus will look at their life to see if their “strawberry pant” actually produced any fruit. Was their life abundant with the “fruit of righteousness”??
Just as I gathered up the worthless strawberry runners from plants bearing no fruit, so too Jesus will gather up all the worthless “runners” of piety and “good pretenses” and toss it all in the fire.
“A person’s work will be shown for what it is, because the Day [of Judgment] will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work.
“If what they have built survives, they will receive their reward. If it is burned up, they will suffer loss; they themself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.” – 1 Corinthians 3:13-15
There you go … random thoughts as I was getting ready this morning gazing out the window at the arrival of smoke season.
