Rotten Apples

By Vickie G. Paver

As I walked my regular route in the month of March, I noticed that the apple trees in the pasture that I walk by each day were filled with rotten apples. It just struck me as odd that the apples were not at least blown off by March winds! But, there they were, holding fast, as if nothing would make them fall to the ground.

Soon, April arrived and as I looked at the trees with the rotted apples, STILL hanging on, I figured there would be no buds on those trees. However, toward the end of April, the trees were filled with buds.

Time marched on and May soon brought lovely pink blossoms on those apple trees. I looked closely to see if any rotten apples were among the blossoms. Just a few were hanging among the beautiful blossoms. The trees were lovely to look at.

God shared something with me while I observed the changes that took place with the apple trees in the pasture. The way they changed reminded me of how we stand before God as sinners and that our sin is ugly to God. So, one day, when we learn about Christ, in church, from a friend or family member or some other way, we realize our need and accept Him into our hearts. We then begin our personal relationship with Christ. We change and become beautiful in His eyes. He washes all our sins away and we bud and blossom.

Like the apples trees though, through the Holy Spirit's prompting, we learn to examine our hearts. At times we find a few rotten apples (sin) hanging among the blossoms. Perhaps we feel devastated by our potential, even as Christians, to sin. Perhaps the sin is unintentional or perhaps we sinned on purpose! These rotten apples (sins) that are revealed to us by the Holy Spirit don't need to remain in our lives. We can have forgiveness. The thing to remember is that as children of God we will not be perfect until we go to be with Him, so we need to examine our hearts and lives daily. God will replace the sin or sins with blossoms and we will grow spiritually. As time passes, we realize that we cannot do anything apart from God. We still have that potential to sin, but praise God He covered it all with the precious blood of Jesus, Who died for our sins.

Would you like to have a special relationship with Jesus? Would you like to have the peace that comes from knowing Him?

How to become a child of God.