Today I decided it was time to take care of a HUGE box of apples that we picked on our homeschool co-op field-trip, last week. What better than preserving the fresh-from-the-orchard goodness than by canning it. ;) So, with my BiMart canning jar deals and the little men to help me peel (yes, that was our life-skill, today)...I set off on an apple canning mission.
I'm not quite sure how many lbs exactly that we preserved, but I know that we ended up with 7 1/2 quart jars of homemade applesauce and another 5 quart jars of homemade apple-pie filling.
Yep. I'll certainly be enjoying my holiday-time apple pies like none other, this year. ;)
So, while the boys and I were sitting on a towel on the living-room rug, peeling apples and watching a movie earlier today, I found myself thinking about peeling an apple... and how I feel a LOT like that apple right now. God started peeling ME a year ago and though that's still in process, the brown that sets in shortly after an apple gets air is a bit like how I've been feeling about myself since entering the post-cancer stage. Like a browned version of myself.
The epiphany hit me, however, when I was unloading that bowl of apples to core and slice them and while doing so was able to take the thinnest of slices off of each to reveal the beautiful inside, again.
Then, tonight while I was finishing up canning everything (the little men got just a preview, as they certainly wouldn't of wanted to can 13 quart-sized jars of goods all night)... I found myself thinking about the preservation of the apple-based goods... how we peeled away their outside and made them 'feel' brown, but then we made them into something 'new', in a way, that will last a LOT longer than just the apples by themselves would have.
It dawned on me.
God's been peeling me. He revealed what to me, right now, feels 'brown'---exposed and 'no longer good'---but the inside is still there. And he's making ME into something new that will LAST.
Yes. I did just compare myself to a canned apple.
But hey, it's not that far off when you consider the 'fruits' of the spirit~
Thanks, Hayley....since my cancer was at the core of my breast I have been able to relate to the fruit you compared yours to. What a blessing you are to me.. I love you... oh and yours too!
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