Liquid

They’re everywhere!
Beautifully radiant with all the Fall colors of the Northeast. Rich crimson; deep amber; every shade of a frost-bitten Maple right here in Southern California. Their leaves are identically shaped and profuse. They make great mounds Kids love to dive into again and again!
But they aren’t Maples. Not even close! The Sputnik-like seeds they drop are infertile. In the Spring Maple sap flows profusely through trunk and branch. Tap those crystal streams and you have that sweet liquid; the stuff of candy and the tastiest syrup there is! Later in the season Maple seeds flutter to the ground like motorless helicopters, fertile and ready to birth yet another Candy carrier and harbinger of the life that rests beneath the frozen snows of Winter.
The trees we’re seeing again this Autumn/Winter, for all their imitations offer none of those fruits. The seeds are infertile. There’s no food in their stalks or stems. They are counterfeits; pretenders to something that cannot be. Lifeless, finally, for they have no substance and bear no fruit.
Jesus said, “I am the vine. Your are the branches. … If you abide in me and my words abide in you you will produce much fruit.” He is, He said, “the Life.” And when true “Life” courses through you, substance and authenticity emerge.
Oh there are many alternative ways of life offered. They’ve always been there. They’re colorful. They provide many pleasures. On the surface they appear to offer everything Christ promises. But they have no substance. Their fruit proves lifeless. The vitality and durability; the love and joy; the serenity and contentment are missing. True character cannot be found in them. They are counterfeit.
“Taste and see that the LORD is good.
Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in him!” (Psalm 34: 8)