Strawberry Jam

I bought 15 pounds of strawberries when I went to the store yesterday.  It wasn't on my list, but when we walked in, they were on "quick sale".  For those of you who don't have/shop at an H-E-B, "quick sale" is their way of getting almost out of date items sold.  I've gotten some pretty awesome stuff thanks to quick sale, my strawberries as an example.  Last year, I would have passed them by-- well, we might have gotten one box to eat that afternoon! ;)  But this spring I was introduced to the wonder of canning.  Not that I'd never seen canning before.  I grew up with Mommy canning veggies from our garden & making jam from whatever happened to have a good harvest that year.  But I had never had the desire or supplies to can.  By the time you buy fruit from the store, you might as well just buy store canned goods/jams and save yourself the time! =)  So this spring I had a HUGE amount of apricots & peaches given to me, which I turned into pure deliciousness!  I knew I could do that with the strawberries too, so I've been in my kitchen all morning.

Here's the thing I was pondering as I was listening to a sermon & processing fruit.  Jam is SUPER YUMMY!  In fact, homemade jam is even MORE flavorful than its store bought counterpart.  I love flavors, and especially sweet flavors.  But I was thinking what it takes to preserve the fruit.  If you put strawberries on your counter, within a few days or a week, you no longer have deliciousness-- you have mold! =P  If you add sugar, they last a little longer, but within that week or so, you now have... strawberry brandy?  It takes basically two things to preserve fruit, sugar & heat.  And I was pondering how that works.  If you just put strawberries over heat, before long you have blackened stench in the bottom of your pan. EEEWWW!

By now you're probably familiar with my pattern of thinking about things in relation to spiritual lessons.  God speaks in the Bible through pictures that were familiar to the culture of the time, so it seems appropriate to apply modern pictures to concepts in Scripture as well.  I have had a rather larger amount of heat in my life lately than I'd experienced for a while.  And I'm not very cooperative.  I tend to fight against the work that God is accomplishing in me.  But I thought a little more about the sugar.  Sugar with the heat both preserves and enhances the flavor of the fruit.  So I thought the gospel is like sugar.  It keeps the heat of life circumstances from turning me into "blackened stench".

Of David, when he changed his behavior before Abimelech, so that he drove him out, and he went away. I will bless the LORD at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul makes its boast in the LORD; let the humble hear and be glad. Oh, magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together! I sought the LORD, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed. This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them. Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him! Oh, fear the LORD, you his saints, for those who fear him have no lack! The young lions suffer want and hunger; but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing.
Psalms 34:1-10