Hydrangea, At Last

This hydrangea I moved to the chapel from my little front garden some years ago. Although it seemed a happier plant on Newby Hill, it never bloomed -until this year, that is. Whatever combination of weather persuaded it to flower here and now, I do not know. The soil is poorer and the wind stronger, but the balance of sunshine, water, nutrients, and willpower evidently united to give us this rather nice floral display. I trust that next year it will do the same, but even better.

Without that flower, it looked like a hydrangea but it wasn’t a 'proper one' until it made those hydrangea flowers. A person without the Fruit of the Spirit may look the part and certainly say the right words, but without that love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control of which the scriptures speak, they can never be the real thing. Looking for pears on a cherry tree is a waste of time; seeking the Spirit’s fruit among those who have never truly come to Christ is just as great a fool’s errand.

You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Matthew 7:16