Blackberries Are Ripe And Ready To Pick
Matthew 5:3-6
If there is nothing more traditionally American than apple pie, there is nothing more traditionally Southern than blackberry cobbler. Summer is at its peek when the blackberries are ripe and ready to pick. As Shelby and I picked a few berries from our patch early one morning last week, I was reminded of a lesson. – The ripest fruit always hangs lowest.
In
the
Those
who are richest in grace are “poor in
spirit.” They know themselves to be poor. Those who have greatest cause for
joy are “they that mourn.” They mourn
because they are keenly aware of their depravity, sin, and unbelief. Those who
are nearest what they should be are “the
meek.” They know that they are indescribably less than they should be.
Those who are the fullest are “they which
do hunger and thirst for righteousness.” Knowing that they are robed with
the perfect righteousness of Christ imputed to them, being born of his Spirit,
they hunger and thirst (in the depths of their souls, they hunger and thirst)
after Christ – To be like him in the totality of their beings! -- The ripest fruit always hangs lowest.
The more a believer
grows in Christ, the nearer he approaches heaven, the more unfit for heaven he
knows he is in himself. To be sure, he knows that in Christ he is “meet to be partaker of the inheritance of
the saints in light.” He does not question the efficacy of Christ’s blood,
the perfection of his righteousness, the fulness of God’s forgiveness, or the
completeness of his acceptance with God in Christ. Regarding those things, he
may indeed have the “full assurance of
faith.” Yet, he knows that in himself he is most unworthy of and unfit for
everlasting acceptance with the holy Lord God. Grace teaches those who
experience it by degrees that we are the least among God’s servants, then less
than the least of all saints, and finally that we are the very chief of sinners.
These things we learn early in our heads; but they are truly learned only by
experience. Truly, as they ripen for heaven, God’s saints are a people who are
learning that – The ripest fruit always
hangs lowest.
When I was just a
nineteen year old boy, as my wife and I started to leave his home after a night
of blessed, edifying fellowship with Pastor Harry Graham and his wife, Nola,
Harry made a statement to me that I have never forgotten, but am just beginning
to learn. He said, “Don, it’s impossible to distinguish tares from wheat until
harvest time; but at harvest time, the tares stand tall and the wheat bows its
head.” – The ripest fruit always hangs
lowest.
Don Fortner