Too Nutty?

December 3, 2022

Some years there are very few nuts on the dozen or so pecan trees that circle our yard. I wish this were one of those years. I need a break! There is just too much to do right now. There’s no time for scrounging around the yard, looking for little nutty things.

In 2020 we had an incredible harvest of pecans from our yard. We had the nuts cracked professionally and then had to dig the nuts out of the shells. We put up enough bags in our freezer to last a long time. It now looks like we will have enough to last until 2024. Wow! For nearly twenty years before that, we’ve never had more than a few pounds of nuts on the ground.

In Luke 12, Jesus tells a parable about a man who had an outstanding crop one year. It would not even fit in all his barns, so he decided to build more storage space and not worry about next year’s crop. “I’ll just relax. I’ll eat, drink, and be merry.” Jesus said he was a fool. Before the man could get started on his new “merry” lifestyle he died. “Whose stuff will all that be now?”

Was he supposed to give his extra to the poor? I’ve never been sure. The point, though, is that he should not have become lazy. God had blessed the guy, but he should keep working. The next year might not go so well.

In the story of Jacob’s son Joseph, didn’t he and the Egyptians save up their extra, to be ready for poor crop years ahead?

So I will pick up the pecans. Who knows when the next big crop will be?