What do you see?
I asked a chef friend of mine why restaurants do not offer pears in fruit or other dishes. He told me that pears are all about timing and only good for a few days when ripe. And that they can take a while to ripen to the point where they are most desirable and delicious.
“He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.” Ecclesiastes 3:11 ESV
I love pears! Much of the reason for my love of pears is that my daughters will sit and talk with me and eat ripe pears as long as I will peel and cut them up into bite sized pieces. My love is the waiting, the watching, the recognizing and the fellowship that results from those pears ripened just right with family ready to enjoy the ‘fruits’ of our patience and expectation.
“A day with the Lord is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.” 2 Peter 3:8 ESV
How many times has God placed someone in your life’s journey who is bruised. Who is skeptical. Who is hardened from life experiences that has left them broken, needing, wanting and defensive. We often hear the term that “they are like an onion” needing to have layer after layer peeled back.” A good analogy but one that can cause tears to roll down your face. A pear is so much more fragile. The re-pear (repair, get it?) needs to be supernatural, where genuine, Christ-centered love in the moment cuts away the bruise and peels back the cover to reveal a beautiful fragrance and contribution that makes life better for all.
“The least of you will become a thousand, the smallest a mighty nation. I am the Lord; in its time I will do this swiftly.” Isaiah 60:22 NIV
Accept that God is placing some people in your life who simply need a good word, encouragement, opportunity, belief in them. A simple ‘you matter’ can make their life matter for the first time. There are so many pears that come through our lives needing to be recognized, whose beauty and flavor will invade when they are simply recognized.
So today consider setting aside personal bruises for the joy of what someone bruised and hurting may have to pour into your life. A small conversation of encouragement could deliver a lifetime of joy and friendship.
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds;and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” Matthew 7:7-8 NIV
If you have found, help someone else who is seeking. Heaven is real and the day of the Lord is coming like a thief in the night. Let’s get obsessed as Jesus-freaks to help as many as possible to set aside life’s bruises for eternity’s promise.
You’ve got this.