Lessons from a Blueberry Bush

Each year for the past several years, a very generous gardener opens his blueberry bushes to friends and relatives.  It is a great opportunity to restock our vat of frozen blueberries that will eventually become cobblers, muffins, or pies.  I am always grateful for the opportunity to pick blueberries on a warm Tennessee summer day, but I am also thankful for the lessons I’ve come to learn through this experience.

The work is never done.  I always have the best of intentions when I go to pick the blueberries.  I tell myself that this time, I’m going to pick every ripe blueberry in my section of bushes.  I pick, I carefully observe, and I pick some more.  Then, as I look back to admire my diligent picking abilities, I find little blue dots mocking my feeble attempt to take them all.  Anyone who has picked blueberries probably knows this feeling.  “I KNOW there were no ripe blueberries in that spot 2 minutes ago!”  But this is a reminder that the work of the blueberry bush is never done.  There will always be new blueberries to pick and harvest.  

The generosity of the gardener. This year, I took along a very zealous 8 year old who is learning the value of a dollar.  Picking blueberries would put a few dollars in his pocket, and he counted down the days until it was time to start the work. He had the proper gear, plenty of water, and the right spirit.  On the ride home, my 8 year old, in a philosophical manner, couldn’t understand how we picked the blueberries, we kept the blueberries, and then were paid for doing the work.  He could not understand this kind of generosity. He did, however, understand that we did nothing to deserve or earn this generosity.  

The toil of the work.  Working with an 8 year old can be a real delight, but it is typically short lived.  The intentions may have been to work 3 hours in the blueberry bushes, but 10 minutes in and we’re already asking ‘How long have we been picking?’  The gnats were unbearable one day, as was the heat, yet, we picked on.  It took encouragement. It took a gentle reminder that there was a reward towards which we were working. In the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t hard work, but it was a weary work.  Weary, but rewarding.

The sharing of the work. These bushes are healthy and beautiful and tall.  It means that there are spots that a small guy can’t quite reach yet.  But there were some low places that were a perfect opportunity for him to reach right in and grab the ripe ones.  It took teamwork those days to pick the blueberries from the top and the bottom.  There were some places he could reach that I couldn’t, and there were some places I could reach that were too high for him.  Working together made the work more doable and bearable. 

The preparation of the work.  These blueberry bushes did not grow overnight.  We didn’t just show up and there they magically were. Someone had to take the time to dig and to plant and to nurture well ahead of time so that there would be a harvest in due season.  The weeding and the cultivating took much work, but the benefits were shared by many. 

In the toil of picking blueberries, hands stained and patience stretched, we learn the slow rhythm of faith-filled labor. Though the work is tedious and the yield uncertain, each ripe berry reminds us that diligence, guided by God's provision, bears both spiritual and tangible fruit.