Spiritual Fruit

This summer, my 9-year-old grandson and I ventured out to pick muscadines. The vines were heavy with clusters—some grapes high and out of reach, others hanging low, ready for little hands to pluck. We laughed together as our fingers turned purple, dropping fruit into the basket one by one. Later in the kitchen, we washed the muscadines, cooked them down, and strained the juice. What started as sticky handfuls of fruit became jars of sweet, glistening jelly—something to be enjoyed for months to come.

As we worked side by side, I couldn’t help but think of how often the Bible speaks of fruit. Jesus said, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). Just as muscadines must remain on the vine to grow ripe and sweet, so we must remain connected to Christ if we are to bear spiritual fruit in our lives.

But fruit isn’t only for eating fresh—it can be preserved, shared, and enjoyed later. In the same way, the fruit of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23)—is not meant to be hoarded. It is meant to enrich the lives of others. Just as my grandson and I made jelly to bless our family beyond the harvest day, the Spirit’s fruit in us should overflow to bless others long after the moment God planted it in our hearts.

Proverbs 22:6 reminds us, “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” Time in the vineyard with my grandson was more than picking grapes—it was planting seeds of faith. He may remember the laughter, the sticky hands, and the taste of sweet jelly, but I pray he also remembers the deeper truth: staying connected to Jesus brings lasting fruit that nourishes the soul.

So let us pick faithfully, preserve joyfully, and share generously. For the fruit God produces in us is sweeter than any muscadine jelly, and its flavor is eternal.