My mom was cutting one up into chunks today and as the rinds piled up in the sink I took a look and was struck by the colors. Vibrant green rinds with dark green stripes. Pinkish red interior.
The coloring is awesome.
As I stood there a bit mesmerized, I thought about how watermelons, just like any other fruit is God's creation. Then I thought about pineapples, and just how colorful they are. Spiky green tops with a patterned rind. Bright sunshiny yellow on the inside. How beautiful.
We sometimes take for granted the Genesis story of the 3rd day:
"And God said, Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear. And it was so.
10 God called the dry ground land, and the gathered waters he called seas. And God saw that it was good.
11 Then God said, Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds. And it was so.
12 The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.
13 And there was evening, and there was morning— the third day."
Genesis 1:9-13
Just two simple verses describe every single plant that God created on that day. Every single type of vegetation. Every single type of fruit. I think those two verses don't do God justice. Just looking at the watermelon and looking at the artistry that went into that...it kind of takes my breath away. So much care and creation into that one fruit. God not only made sure it taste delicious, but also made it look beautiful.
What if God had decided to make all fruits black, white, and gray. If the world we lived in was colorless, if nature was not the lush greenery we know it to be. Sure it would still be nice to look at, but would it have as much impact and display so much beauty? I think not.
Two verses describe the creation of the watermelon, showing that it was a deliberate act by God to create fruit to be beautiful. He chose fruit to have the purpose of not only being nutritious and delicious, but pleasing to the eye. Looking at the watermelon, each rind has those dark green stripes that look like a brush stroke. Like a painter, God crafted each fruit to be a demonstration of his creative genius.
The crazy thing is that God was so careful about making a fruit. I mean a fruit is a fruit. You eat it and its gone. You leave it out too long and it gets moldy. It has no mind, no emotion, no spirit.
Unlike us.
Watermelons, as beautiful as they are are nothing compared to us. We are God's masterpiece. Every plant he made was just an addition, to us, his true masterpiece. He created fruit to please US, to bring US joy, to feed OUR hungry tummies and to show US his beauty. Because it's not like God needs fruit to feed his tummy. He created it to fill our need.
1) This first shows that God really KNOWS our needs and wants to fill them. He KNOWS the dreams in our hearts, the hopes that we have, and he wants to help us reach them. Sometimes we think we have to pray and tell him what we want/think we need, or that we need to talk to him in order for him to understand us and where we are.
But he KNOWS us. There is no need to tell him because he KNOWS. Now that doesn't mean he doesn't want us to talk to him and tell him. But it does mean that even when we are unsure, or worried, or confused, God is not. When we are not confident in ourselves, in despair, and downhearted, God is not.
2) Second this shows that God has made us each to be so beautiful and unique.
Think about how many fruits there are and how different each one looks. God spent time crafting each one of them to be different and special, knowing that all of us would have one we call our favorite, one we like to look at etc. It was all purposely done.
And that's how he made us...except with even MORE thought and consideration. We are each made with different rinds, vibrant coloring, soft and hard interiors, small and large sizes, sweet and tart tastes. None of this is by accident. We are not by accident.
The world tells us to fit into a certain mold, that we need to be a certain way to succeed, that we are wrong for wanting to be how God made us. But none of that is true. None of that.
God lovingly created fruit for us to eat, but even more lovingly created us.
How beautiful.
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