The Mystery of the Peach Tree

There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. So Moses thought, "I will go over and see this strange sight- why the bush does not burn up." Exodus 3:2-3

If you do not yet think I'm looney, you will by the end of this post.

As most of you know, I just got back from a homeschool convention in Atlanta. Before I go to these conventions I always pray and ask the Lord to give me scriptures or a direction to pray for each particular convention. For this one, He just kept speaking to my heart to expect the miraculous.

I went. I came home. No miracles to note. The speaking went well. The sales went well. But I didn't feel 100% healthy while I was there which made things a little more difficult than usual. Otherwise, it was normal. Odd, especially when you compare it to the outstanding things God did at the other conventions I've attended this year.

This morning I reminded God about expecting the miraculous and how I hadn't seen anything noteworthy in that department.

A little while later I was on the phone when something in the back of my house caught my eye. We live on the edge of a forest that keeps encroaching closer year by year so we have lots of greenery back there. I saw something that looked orangish yellow, almost like a peach, at the end of our driveway. At first I passed it off as a discolored leaf, but it kept catching my eye so I went for a closer look. What I found astounded me. A full grown peach tree laden with over thirty peaches. Some of the branches were so full of peaches that they were lying on the ground.

I had never seen this tree before. Ever. I regularly pick wild blackberries in that area. When I'm upset I go right to the end of the driveway and stand looking into the forest talking to God. I'm in that vicinity A LOT and I have never ever seen a peach tree there before.

I picked a peach and took it to my son. He asked where I got it so I took him outside to show him our peach tree. He had never seen that tree before.

When my daughter woke up I asked her if she'd picked any peaches off our tree before. She said, "We don't have a peach tree, Mom." I took her and showed it to her and she had never seen it before.

I called my husband at work and asked if he had seen the peach tree at the end of the driveway. He had no idea what I was talking about. He'd never seen the peach tree. And yet here it is- a fruit laden peach tree that somehow all of us have missed for the last 12 years!

I don't know how that tree got there or how we all missed it until now. We've thrown enough peach pits that direction that I'm sure it could have sprung up from one of them. I'm not saying God just poofed a peach tree into my backyard, but I do have to wonder why none of us has seen it until now.
And isn't it odd that I just got back from Georgia where you hear about "The Georgia Peach" all the time.

I have no clue what all this means, but I just know that God is involved somehow. One thing that came to mind as soon as I saw the tree is that God can take the seeds (peach pits) that we cast to the side as worthless and make something beautiful and fruitful from them. So even though I didn't physically see miracles in Atlanta, something may well be springing up in a way that I never perceived or imagined.

I promise, folks, I'm a rooted and grounded Christian, not of the flaky sort, but today I just happen to have a mature peach tree loaded with peaches standing in my yard where no peach tree has ever stood before, or at least not one that was ever perceived by any member of my family. Make of it what you will. Make of me what you will. But I still have a real tree with real peaches in my real yard.