Did you know that some of our food is now genetically engineered and/or modified? Did you know that they are now growing meat as a food source? Yep. You just go out to the yard and pluck you a burger and grill it up. That’s not actually how it works, in fact, those burgers are being grown in a lab in a petrie dish using a “sampling” from an animal. Eeeew! Gross!!! Sorry, but we are some weird humans. Look how far we’ve come from the lush, fertile Garden of Eden to meat grown in a lab. Beth, you’re crazy, what made you think of that? Canning.
Yep, it’s that time of year, rolls around every late summer, canning season. It’s not so much a thing anymore, we’ve gotten too busy and our grocery store food is too convenient, albeit not as tasty or naturally nutritious, for sure. But, there was a time when many many folks would plant a garden and “put up” vegetables and fruits in glass jars. At the same time, the harvesting of berries and fruits would make for some mean jams, jellies and preserves. Canning was used before refrigeration to preserve foods over the winter months. After the invention of refrigeration, some folks would can and freeze their harvest. Freezing was a little less foolproof – think power outage.
My mom and my aunt used to can, I remember that big huge pressure cooker on the stove, hot as could be, shaking the entire house and dancing from burner to burner. Every once in a while you’d hear a bang and you knew there would be green beans and glass floating when you took the lid off that big momma. Honestly, that thing scared me. I could just envision the lid flying off around the room and laying out everything in sight. Although I’d love to can our food for the winter, I don’t, but there’s something so nostalgic about the thought. I think I will one day.
Right after we got married, Tony’s Memaw thought I should learn to can. All I could think of was that scary pot exploding and glass flying everywhere. I know you know what I’m talking about. I had no desire to experience that. She was persistent. So, we planned the day. I show up and I’m given the job of washing and peeling the peaches. Washing, no problem. Peeling, a problem. Have you ever peeled a peach? I don’t think I’d ever peeled a peach in my life, my daddy was the knife wielder in our family. Anyway, I jump in. Peeled peaches on the left, peelings on the right. I’m hard at it. I look over and what do I see, Memaw peeling my peels. You see, my peeling had only yielded part of the fruit. I had left most of that sweet meat behind. I had only scratched the surface. The whole point of canning the peaches was to preserve, to protect against decay, to save, and I was disposing of the good stuff. I wasn’t getting all that wonderful fruit.
“This is the message from the Amen, the faithful and true witness, who is the origin of all that God has created. I know what you have done; I know that you are neither cold nor hot. How I wish you were either one or the other! But because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I am going to spit you out of my mouth! You say, ‘I am rich and well off; I have all I need.’ But you do not know how miserable and pitiful you are! You are poor, naked, and blind. I advise you, then, to buy gold from me, pure gold, in order to be rich. Buy also white clothing to dress yourself and cover up your shameful nakedness. Buy also some ointment to put on your eyes, so that you may see. I rebuke and punish all whom I love. Be in earnest, then, and turn from your sins. Listen! I stand at the door and knock; if any hear my voice and open the door, I will come into their house and eat with them, and they will eat with me. To those who win the victory I will give the right to sit beside me on my throne, just as I have been victorious and now sit by my Father on his throne.
“If you have ears, then, listen to what the Spirit says to the churches!”
Revelation 3:14-22
We can be just like the Church in Laodicea. We get a little of the fruit, we’re on the fence, I’ll give this much to God, but not everything to God, missing out on the best, the sweetest. We need to keep peeling the peels, layer by layer, until we have gotten everything God has in store for us. We don’t want to leave anything behind. He’s offering us great riches, an opportunity to exchange our filthy rags, and a way to see clearly.
So then, submit yourselves to God. Resist the Devil, and he will run away from you. Come near to God, and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners! Purify your hearts, you hypocrites! Be sorrowful, cry, and weep; change your laughter into crying, your joy into gloom! Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
James 4:7-17
We must learn from the Church in Laodicea. We must peel completely. We can’t peel only half the peach and expect to get all the meat. We can’t stand at the door and knock, but put only a toe over the threshold. We must be willing to take all of the fruit, to be completely His, and not be satisfied with just a sliver.