Fruit Bowl

The fruit of the Spirit is love.” (Galatians 5:22) Love is a fruit growing within us from a supernatural source. It’s not your love, yet it is, since the Spirit works in you both to will and to do loving things that are on his mind. You never hear of an apple tree struggling to produce its fruit. As long as sap flows within the tree, apples will form and blossom. And so it is with the Holy Spirit and love. He is our life and bears the fruit – not us. That’s why he was sent to live in us.” Spirit Rising: Tapping into the Power of the Holy Spirit
by Jim Cymbala




Fruit as we all know it is a by-product or produce from something else. Without the tree the apple wouldn’t grow. Without the vine the grapes wouldn’t cultivate either and the list goes on and on. The only fruit outside of the real thing that can be produced on its own is the bowl of fake fruit that sits on the kitchen table.

Speaking of fake fruit it wasn’t until I was an adult that I found out a trick my dad pulled on us kids when we were little. Raising five kids required a lot of fruit and he never seemed to get to it before we did, until! Until he learned the trick of hiding the real fruit of his choice in the fake fruit bowl that sat on the table. At our bedtime when he thought it was safe he would get out his fruit and eat it.


In this bowl of fruit all of them in the bowl are fake except the one real fruit hidden among it. Can you guess which it is? Too often we try to pull this trick with our spiritual fruit as well. We think we can hide the real stuff among that which is fake. We may be able to fool some of the people some of the time but we will never be able to fool God.


Forget the fake stuff, forget the fruit that doesn’t grow, nourish, or develop. What we need to be concentrating on is the fruit that is produced thru us by God. If you think about it we are the ones that should be the “fruit bowl” that which holds the fruit of the Spirit God grows in our lives if we allow Him to.


We can try and pack in our bowl or heart the things that are fake to make it look more full or colorful but in the long run it does us no good. We need to be looking for the “real stuff” that has greater nourishment value. The fruit from the Holy Spirit that is produced in us through the gardener of our lives, Jesus Christ.


In the picture also are two solar powered flowers. During the night they sit quietly on the table but when daylight comes and the sun hits on them directly through the window they can really get to dancing. They need to the sun to operate just like we need the Son of God to operate our fruit bowl as well. Without it we can try to dress up our lives to look pretty but the true value of a good bowl of fruit is that which is in it. Try putting a rotten apple or a banana that has gone brown in your bowl and see what you get.


The truth is God in us, working through us, makes one awesome “fruit bowl.” Thanks to the Lord He will produce fruit in us like love that will grow and grow and grow. It is fruit worth sharing, fruit worth eating from, fruit that will last forever. We don’t need a green thumb or our own bag of miracle gro to do it, only a heart willing to listen and obey in order to allow God to produce His blessings thru us.


Fruit anyone?!!! Yes, Lord, Yes!!!!

© 2012 Karen Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes