I can’t even tell you why the apple picking was such a big deal to me.  Except that in pictures, it just always looks so beautiful.  And I finally got to pick an apple for the first time this fall!

Growing up in Kansas, I am accustomed to wheat fields but apple trees weren’t really grown around our area.  And in Florida, we are surrounded with citrus trees instead.

So it was a BIG DEAL for our family to go apple picking on our family day trip to New Hampshire this fall.  In fact, our entire trip was planned around the fall festival date at the Applecrest Farm in Hampton Falls, New Hampshire.

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The pictures online looked so perfect.

And we were not disappointed!

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You would think after hundreds of people picking apples, that it would start to look a little, well, picked over.

But the apples were literally weighing down the branches to the point of branches dragging the ground.  Those of you who live around such sites may not really think of it as super special, but it was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen.

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I’ll always remember this day.

And there was one verse that rolled over and over in my mind as I chased after my kids, snapping pictures of every single apple they picked.

“O taste and see that the Lord is good.”

I’m going to get really, really honest and really, really vulnerable with you for a minute.

Maybe you’ve never experienced this before, but there have been some seasons of my life where it didn’t really look or feel like God was good.

I won’t go into specifics because, like most trials, they aren’t my story alone to tell.  And the details don’t matter as much as the truth I need to be reminded of often.  Maybe there is one other person out there today who needs reminded too.

From a very young child, I knew I loved God and I wanted to do right.  And at the same time, wondering why He was “good” to this person and not to another.  Or why He did “good” in this situation while allowing another one to fall apart.

Why this apple grew big and beautiful and this apple fell to the ground to rot?

​It would seem that age and maturity would take those questions away.

But just this year, I have sat in the bathroom floor (because let’s be honest, where else can a mom be by herself?!) and asked God these very questions. 

“Why don’t you fix this?”

“Why won’t you work good in this situation?” 

“Why does this feel so bad when You are so good?”

And yet….

Age and maturity help us understand that the other side of situations usually are not what they seem.  And the resolutions sometimes turn out better than we could have thought and in a very different way than we would have imagined.

Age and maturity also help us understand that some situations just don’t turn out for earthly good.  Some circumstances will never, ever be understood from our humanly perspective. 

Sometimes what we know to be right doesn’t feel good. 

In fact, it may feel gut-wrenching and heart-breaking.

And yet….

He is still good. 

How do I know? 

The Bible tells me so.  I can’t believe some parts and not all.  That’s where determined faith becomes everything.

  The Bible tells me that He is good and that He works all things for good and that He loves me.  In some situations and in some circumstances, that has to be enough.  I have to choose to have faith and let that truth be enough for me.

Even though my heart and mind may scream for life to feel good, or at best, at least a reason why it doesn’t.

How else can I say, with certainty, that God is good?

Because He has been good to me.  There are ebenezer moments, stakes driven in the ground, so to speak.  Moments that have unmistakably and undeniably proved His goodness.

Are there many, many things I can’t understand?  Absolutely.

Will I ever again feel like God isn’t good?  Undoubtedly.

And that is when I can go back and visit what I know to be true, even when my heart would try to deny it.

All of this from apple picking?

I can’t really explain it, but as we took the little tractor trailer ride back to the designated area where we were paying to pick apples on that October day, all I could see was the abundance. 

The goodness. 

The faithfulness of the apple trees to produce this amazing fruit each year. 

Dependable.

Steadfast.

A time to sow and a time to reap.

“O taste and see that the Lord is good.”

All I have to do is reach up and pick the apple from the tree. 

As for the apples that fall to the ground to rot?  All we see of them is the decay and rot.  And yet, the fertilization the add to the soil, the continuation of the life cycle of the apple…so many good things happening that I just can’t see.

Just because I can’t see good happening, doesn’t mean it’s not happening.  Beauty beneath the soil.

There is good all around us because He is good.

Much love from our nest.

Blessings,