Why do we have winter?

When I lived in Tennessee, winter wasn't so bad.  In Kansas City, winter has sharper teeth.  Since April, many of my days have been spent working on the garden in one way or another, but now that's ending.  There's not much more I can do in the garden (not to mention it's really cold).  The plants are all pulled up, I've gotten the ground ready for Spring, the leaves are raked for the compost pile, and there's nothing growing.  There's no prospect of garden fresh vegetables in the near future.  We're savoring our last few tomatoes that we picked green and ripened inside, but that's it.

It makes me ask God why we even have winter in the first place.  There's so much joy in the work and eating the fruit, but we've got to stop.  Well, the work stops, but the dreaming doesn't.  Once you've tasted peppers and tomatoes that fresh, it's hard to forget it.  Canned tomatoes and frozen peppers are good, but they still don't compare.  There's the longing there for freshness, and God made it that way.

Then the disciples of John came to [Jesus], saying, "Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast?"  And Jesus said to them, "Can the friends of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them?  But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast." - Matthew 9:14-15

Humanity got a glimpse of God in the flesh through Jesus.  We tasted of the gentleness and meekness of God in a baby born in a manger, and viewed the Almighty crucified, resurrected and ascended to the right hand of God.  He is the eternal Bridegroom, and He was here with us for a time.  Our hunger was awakened, and we've been given an appetite to be with Him again on the earth.  We mourn because we miss Him, and long for His return.  As clearly as we can imagine the smell of the tomato vines and the taste of fresh peas, we want the Man Chris Jesus to be with us here on the earth.  Spring prophesies that the winter doesn't last forever, and Jesus will return to the earth.  But until that day, we long for His return...

I never knew that was an apple tree...

Late summer this year came with a pleasant surprise; our neighbor down the street has an apple tree in his front yard.  There were apples strewn about on the ground, so we had a hunch that he wasn't eating or storing all of them.  After a few knocks at the door, we finally came by when someone was home and got permission from the guy's brother.  We gathered up a few 5-gallon buckets full of apples and went on our way, happy as clams. 

We made apple crisp and apple sauce, and apple butter, froze sliced apples, and then juiced more into apple cider.  And then we still had a bunch.  I never knew how much I liked Granny Smith apples until I had them fresh off the tree; they were delicious.  But then we wanted more for apple butter, so we went back, with a ladder this time.

So there we are, in our neighbor's front yard with a ladder, picking apples out of his tree.  We still hadn't met the owner, just his brother, but he came out and introduced himself and had a laugh with us.  Seriously, you have to have guts to take a ladder in someone's yard to take their fruit... or permission, but thankfully we had the latter (and the ladder).

Turns out he and his parents have lived in that house for a 30 years, but the apple tree had just been producing fruit for the last few years.  How do you have an apple tree for years and not know it? 

Song of Solomon 2:3 says "Like an apple tree among the trees of the woods is my beloved among the sons of men.  I sat down in His shade with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste."  I can imagine the scene, walking through woods that you've walked through hundreds of times, past the same trees, and suddenly, one of them overflows with apples, and the fruit is really sweet.  It's a picture of Jesus.  The gospels tell us so little of Jesus' childhood.  God walked among us in flesh and didn't do any miracles for 30 years.  Then, all of the sudden, BAM, He bears lots of fruit.  Three years later, He hangs on a tree becoming a curse for us, so we can rest in the shade of His delight and draw near to the Father in His righteousness.