A Concord Pastor Comments: Pause for Prayer: TUESDAY 6/23

Scimone Farm, Concord, MA • Photo by CP

Stopped by Scimone's Farm yesterday afternoon
to pick up some blueberries,
which are, in my humble opinion,
absolute proof of the existence of God!

There's no way anything so sweet and delicious,
could ever have come to be - by accident!
No, these summertime blessings were
divinely designed and carefully crafted by you, Lord,
from whose heart and hand
comes every good gift in heaven and on earth...

But there's more, Lord!

Rosie and Grace,
my friends who farm the Scimone land,
told me the history of their blueberry bushes
- planted by their grandfather some 75 years ago...

Their grandfather's bushes, Lord... now 75 years old:
the very same bushes yielding berries
for three quarters of a century!

These bushes have slept through 75 winters,
waiting each year for spring to green them,
for June to ripen their wonderful fruit...
The same bushes, Lord!
How many blizzards have they survived?
How many ice storms have frozen their branches?
How many droughts have parched their roots?
How many hurricanes have bent them to the ground?
And how many boxes of berries have these bushes filled
to feed us with muffins and pancakes and pies,
with salads and cheesecakes and tarts and scones,,
with ice cream and fruit cup and cobblers and jam!

These bushes have grown on Scimone land
for 75 summers, falls, winters and springs -
not a word of complaint about all they've endured -
just faithfully giving all you made them to give:
their nourishment, sweetness, their fruit and delight,
year after year after year, Lord,
year after year after year...

Teach me the summer-sweet wisdom, Lord,
of those beautiful blueberry bushes,
faithfully, fruitfully growing
by the side of the road
at Scimone's Farm...

Amen.