Matthew 12:33 “Either make the tree good, and its fruit good; or make the tree bad, and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit.”

I like the imagery here of a tree and its fruit. The thing about a tree is that you don’t know what the fruit will be like when you first plant it. It takes time, generally years, for the seed to take root, grow to maturity, then bear fruit. So it is with a human life. My life. Your life.

I’m 53 years old, which means I likely have more years behind me than in front of me. There are times when I wonder what God thinks of the fruit that has been produced thus far from the tree that is my life. I expect God sees both hits and misses. But as I lean into the “back nine” of life, my prayer is that God would help me pursue the right things, to give to others what little I have, and trust that God will make something pleasing which will be multiplied 30, 60, or even 100-fold.

Lord, let it be so. Amen.