It’s August, the time for blackberries.
My family spent most of July in Washington State, and most of that time, the blackberries were not quite ripe. It was a form of First-World summer torture. The boys and I went out to look on the vines several times only to find the berries in their preparatory, not-quite-ready-to-eat state. I was with a five-year-old and three-year-old, and patience is not their strong suit.
“Where are the berries?!”
“They’re not ready yet.”
“But why?”
Here’s the thing about blackberries:
1. They’re delicious when ripe, and not good before they’re ripe
2. They’re delicate when ripe, and break easily
3. They stain your hands when you pick them
4. They grow on thorn bushes
I wonder if blackberry bushes have thorns to slow us down a bit. It’s almost as if their Creator was saying, “Take your time here. Pull one—gently—and enjoy it. The faster you go the more it will sting, and stain.”
The last few days we were in Washington the blackberries started to pop and became ripe. We were pumped! We put them in our shakes and on our ice-cream. We picked them for hours over several days. Very few of the berries that our boys picked actually made it into the bowl and back to the house. The crimson-purple stains around their mouths and on their hands were comical signals of summer. But it was only after the berries were ripe.
Be in the season you’re in. Don’t pick the berries before they’re ripe. They’ll taste bad anyway. Don’t rush ahead or get out in front of whatever God is doing right now. Be here. Now.
Next is next. Now is now. Embrace now. It might be painful. You may be discouraged or impatient. But breathe in summer and embrace your season. The sweet berries are coming soon.
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