ENan and I have been on some memorable adventures in the 50 years we have been together (47 years married plus 3 years dating.)  I have enjoyed sharing some of these adventures with you over the past thirty years since Covid happened.  (It seems like it’s been that long.)

Last weekend we shared an experience we have never done before.  We went “dumpster diving!”  Some folks have managed to get a YouTube series out of their dumpster diving but ours wasn’t that glamorous.  It wasn’t really a dumpster – it was more like a large trash can.  And we didn’t have to “dive” in – it was more like “reach” in.  But, let your imagination take you where it will.

We were at the Blueberry Festival in Burgaw and decided to check out all of the vendors.  We sampled blueberry ice cream, blueberry shortcake and ate a Paul’s Place hot dog.  (It was red, not blue.)

The booth that sold the blueberry ice cream also had some blueberry bushes for sale.  We decided to buy some blueberry bushes for our yard but we didn’t want to keep up with them all day.  So later in the afternoon we went back by the booth and found they had packed up and gone home!  All that was left was the aforementioned trashcan with bushes sticking out – blueberry bushes.  We felt a moral obligation to rescue those blueberry bushes so we leaned in, lifted out all we could carry and brought them home.  Now I feel a moral obligation to plant them, water them, fertilize them and prune them until they bear fruit.

There is a spiritual lesson in this.  The Book of Romans reminds us that, at one time, we were “powerless”, “sinners” and even “enemies of God”. (Romans 5:6-10) Yet God came to rescue us from our sin and shame.  He lifted us out of our despair and He grafted us into the family of God.  It is His desire that we bear fruit – spiritual fruit such as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness and faithfulness.  (Galatians 5:22-23)  When we bear fruit, God gets the glory!

It is probably going to be next year before I see any fruit on our “rescue” bushes.  I hope it isn’t going to take that long in my life.