A Perspective Switch

Last year I bought strawberry plants to plant in our yard. I couldn’t wait for them to grow and spread and produce lots of sweet little red berries. I envisioned my kids running around the yard with buckets full of strawberries and making delicious summery desserts like strawberry shortcake, strawberry ice cream, and strawberry tarts.

The summer came and went and those strawberry plants produced a grand total of five strawberries.

Yes.

Five.

I was a little disappointed but figured those images of bushels full would become a reality next year.

Here we are next year and the strawberry plants have not quite spread like I thought they would. After reading up again on strawberries, I realized we just so happen to live in the small part of southern California where strawberries don’t grow very well.

I thought about the slim pickings the year before and my disappointment turned into awe. Despite being planted in the wrong climate, those strawberry plants defied the odds and produced five small sweet little strawberries that we were able to enjoy.

So far this late spring, we’ve already found a few strawberries to pick and enjoy. Knowing what I know now about the climate we live in, my perspective has changed from expecting bushels full to seeing the strawberries we are able to find and pick as reminders that even though they were planted in the wrong climate, beautiful things can grow under all the wrong circumstances…we just have to look a little harder for them.

As we begin to emerge out of quarantine, knowing we were not created to live our lives alone in this world, may we allow our hearts to go on a scavenger hunt and look for the fruit that has defied the odds and grown to ripeness during this time of isolation.