My oldest daughter came in yesterday afternoon after playing with the dogs in the backyard and excitedly showed me a perfectly round, ripe, red cherry and exclaimed that the cherries were ready to be picked. I had just been out by the orchard a few days before and hadn’t seen any ripe cherries at all, so I was a bit skeptical. But sure enough, when we all went out to take a look at the cherry trees there were quite a few that were ripe, with many more looking like they would be ready to pick in the near future. I think we discovered the cherries before the birds and insects had a chance to discover they were ready for the eating, which was a relief for me! That has happened in years past…where the bugs and worms started feasting before we even had a chance to get to them.

I was reminded as we were picking of a number of years ago when we were visiting my in-laws out here at the farm, where we are now living. I was outside with my then 3 girls, sister-in-law, and her 3 children. My sister-in-law and I were carefully picking out the nice, pretty, perfect looking cherries. The kids were doing a pretty good job as well, but the little ones would sometimes pull the nasty, wormy ones and place them in the bucket. When we were finished picking we, of course, had to wash and sort the cherries again before we started pitting them. When we would get to a half eaten or black or wormy looking cherry we would throw it out and move on. Usually we use a hand crank cherry pitter but that day couldn’t seem to find it so we decided to pit them 1 by 1…by hand. {As a child, I remember watching my grandmother pit her cherries by hand using an over-sized bobby pin after picking cherries from the tree in her back yard. I think that is why I have made sure to hold on to one of those big hair pins all of these years because of that specific memory. It came in handy that day!}

So, as we started along the process we were shocked by how many worms we were finding in the cherries! These perfect, beautifully colored, perfectly rounded, no-sign-of-intrusion cherries we would cut open to find black, hard spots and worms on the inside. It was so deceiving! It got me to thinking, “Man, aren’t we like that as Christians sometimes?”

We can sometimes have this beautiful, perfect looking exterior, but on the inside we are plagued with sin…black, dark, ugly sin…that is eating away like those worms ate the cherries. And no one else knows because we hide it so well. But you know what is so cool about God? He doesn’t just toss us rotten, sinful people to the wayside like I was chucking those rotten cherries. He makes us new. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone and the new has come.” Our sin, on the other hand, He tosses so far away that He can’t even remember it. As far as the east is from the west Psalm 103:12 tells us…pretty far since they won’t ever meet up! 1 John 1:9 tells us that if we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness…all of those ugly things that separate us from Him. And what is left when we partner with His perfection and grace? That new creation. A perfectly formed, beautifully clean {most importantly on the inside} cherry, if you will.

So, whatever sin you find yourself in a struggle with, give it to Jesus! Ask Him to forgive you and help you. Let Him clean you out and make you new. I can assure you…there is no greater feeling! -Shelley.