We returned home from our recent trip to Starkville, MS with a large box of apples. We attended a cattle sale there, at our friends’ sale, The Magnolia Classic. They bring in several varieties of apples from their hometown orchards in West Virginia to share with all of the people visiting their farm and supporting their sale. We definitely brought home more than we could eat, so I had to figure out a new thing to do with them!
I made apple pie filling last year and canned it, but we still have some left and I didn’t have as much time to commit to that again. I put in a little research and realized that apple sauce was easy to do and could be used in quite a few recipes, if I don’t just end up eating it out of the jar! It was so easy to peel and cut up the apples, throw in a few ingredients, turn on the crockpot and walk away!
After a few hours in the crockpot and a good stir, the applesauce was done. I poured it into some jars, canned it and ta-da, homemade applesauce! I ended up doing a couple of batches and still had to give some apples away because there were so many. A few still remain on the counter, hoping to be eaten!
I really didn’t intend to write about the sale or the apples, but something struck me as I watched my kids this weekend. They went out on a search to buy a pumpkin. Last minute and on a Sunday evening, they had a hard time finding a suitable pumpkin to carve. Do you know what they ended up doing? They bought watermelons! Watermelons!
I mean, who does that? Who decides, there aren’t pumpkins available, so let’s carve a watermelon instead? My kids, that’s who! And by doing so they taught me a valuable lesson!
I took a look at the creativity and the ingenuity of what they had done and I was amazed! But it’s quite the same thing that moms and wives do every day cooking supper/dinner, right? You take something and turn it into something else! Just like turning apples, that will spoil and go bad, into applesauce that will be shelf stable for a few years.
God spoke so softly to my heart, that still, small voice, as I looked at that pumpkin...”Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” Isaiah 43:18 ESV
What a promise! And what a reminder! Sometimes I get stuck. I get stuck on what I see or what is in front of me. I get hung up on a situation or worse yet, completely lose the vision. Proverbs 29:18 KJV says, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.”
Just like those apples, without a vision to make them last, they will perish. Just like my kids, without a vision, the plans of carving a pumpkin would have vanished. Instead, they took the vision and ran with it and were able to turn their plan into a reality.
Can I encourage you today, along with myself, to grasp the vision? Take hold of His vision, His plan and run with it! Don’t get bogged down in the things that you cannot change. Don’t get stuck in situations or what you see in front of you. If you do, it may perish. But if we could see things with His vision, through His eyes, we can see Him do a new thing! We will see our dreams and our visions become reality!
Maybe your vision is for a lost child, a broken marriage, or a financial crisis. He is doing a new thing! We just have to have His vision to see it! Listen to what He said, he is not a man that He should lie. If He said it, He will do it!
Have vision and see those apples turn into a new thing!
Another wonderful story showing God’s gentle inspirations into our everyday lives! He is truly with us and all we have to do is listen and be inspired with the help of the Holy Spirit.
All we have to do is listen!