A pomegranate perched atop our fruit bowl has taunted me for days with its tart goodness. I love to spread the bright, juicy seeds on my breakfast cereal, waking up to tangy bursts of flavor. Yet lately I have been too busy to peel the pomegranate! The few minutes needed to pierce the luscious, leathery skin and reveal the seed abundance inside seem to elude me; every morning feels full of rush, scant on time, off-and-running without pause.
I write this because I am assuming you, dear gardener, can relate. You are likely too busy to read about someone who is too busy to peel a pomegranate! Nearly everyone I meet smiles meekly under the pressure of overwhelming work challenges, health crisis, family care, or combinations of all three, a hyperbole of demands hovering incessantly.
Though the times seem astonishing in their intensity of to-do’s, none of this takes our Lord Jesus by surprise. In the midst of our troubles, he established peace.
“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
John 16:33 NIV
Let us stand together and praise our God who’s “got this.” Though the burdens bring our spirits low, our Lord meets us in such humble places and revives.
For this is what the high and exalted One says— he who lives forever, whose name is holy: “I live in a high and holy place, but also with the one who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.”
Isaiah 57:15 NIV
O Lord, may I redirect my thinking so I may realize my revived heart! May the prominent red pomegranate signal me to seek the One who always makes a way; flooding fears and fiery trials are his forte.
Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have summoned you by name; you are mine.
When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,
they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire,
you will not be burned;
the flames will not set you ablaze.
For I am the Lord your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your Savior
Isaiah 43:2-3 NIV
I cannot conceive of a way out of what lies ahead—to accomplish all the tasks, to meet all the needs—but I can enter into the shelter of God’s Word and its bounty of shielding promise. The way out is in. Beginning with a plunge into the pomegranate!
Enjoy this demonstration of peeling a pomegranate – there is nothing like the moment when the rind is peeled back to reveal the plentiful seeds from this fanciful fruit!
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gyFM1Y8tqY[/youtube]
Photo Credits: ©2014 Shelley S. Cramm Pomegranate perched on fruit bowl (from the grocery store, not our garden…yet!)
