Blackberries

No, mother, this isn't a post about our childhood cat (as you can guess, was named "Blackberry").  This  post is about the real, actual berry.

One of the fabulous things about living in the Pacific Northwest is the abundance of fruits and vegetables.  Alot of them are brought over from Eastern Washington, but many are found in our own backyard.  Literally.

Apparently, the Himalayan blackberry really loves living in Seattle.  They grow everywhere! (Southerners, think Kudzu)  By the side of the road, behind office buildings, along sidewalks, bordering parking lots, you get the picture.  Last year, I vaguely noticed them and had interest, but this year I knew more.   I knew that I had to figure out where to get some.  So starting about mid-August, I'd notice the berries starting to ripen.  Yum!  But to my great dismay, the juiciest ones were always off cliffs or in peralis ditches or RIGHT beside the busiest roads.  The conversation I imaged having with the cop, and more importantly Jason, as to why I caused a 10-car pile up never seemed to justify the urge to stop. ("But officier, can't you see how big those berries are?!")

So what's a girl to do?  Thankfully for me, I have a big God that cares about little things.  I didn't pray about, I didn't come to Him with my longing for those succulant, little berries (insert licking lips sound here), I just continued looking for a fence that I could scale to try and get some.  But He knew my desires and provided for me anyway...

One day after church, I noticed a couple in the kitchen with a couple of big containers packed with blackberries.  "Where did you get those?!"  "Um, behind the church" was Amy's sweet reply to the berry-crazed woman.  Are you kidding me?  Behind the church?!  I had been willing to risk life and limb to try and get those berries and all I had to do was walk out the back door of the church?!

So at the next available opportunity (5 minutes later), I herded all the boys out and we picked the first of many containers of blackberries.   And yes, they were as delicious as I had imagined.  I just couldn't believe how easily assessible they were. 

Isn't that just like God?  Something that I thought was difficult and literally out of reach, He made available so even my baby boy could enjoy them.  What an awesome God we have!

"Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake?  If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!"         Matthew 7: 9-11