My first Sunday school teacher was named Blondie and she always had Juicy Fruit gum handy to give out to her students. I don’t remember one lesson, but the smell of Juicy Fruit always takes me back to the Methodist church basement and little red chairs and a flannel board.

Blondie gave me a good start in a life of faith and fruitfulness.

From beginning to end, fruit shows up in scripture, starting with “Be fruitful and multiply” in Genesis and going all the way to the heavenly Tree of Life in Revelation that “yields its fruit every month”. Unfortunately, there was that fruit-eating incident in Eden that kicked off the whole sin-nature thing. But later, the apostle Paul crafted a beautiful picture of what holy fruit looks like: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” (Gal. 5:22-23)

On His last night with His disciples, Jesus laid out the plan:
“Abide in Me and I will abide in you.” (John 15:4)
The result: Fruit.

My job isn’t to produce the fruit.
My job is to stay connected to the vine.
Juicy Fruit will grow naturally.

“A branch cannot produce any fruit by itself.
It has to stay attached to the vine.”
John 15:4