Maturity, Christian
Christian maturity is like ripening fruit, patiently prepared for God's service.
"Some years ago," says a lady, "I made the acquaintance of an old peasant in a little German village. He was called Gottlieb, signifying 'the love of God.' If ever heart was filled with love to God and to all God's creatures, it was his. He possessed one or two apple and pear trees; and used to amuse himself in the summer by picking up the fallen fruit, and heaping it up in a corner of the shed. Once I came upon him as he was stooping to pick up a fallen apple. 'Don't you weary, Gottlieb,' I asked, 'stooping so often, and then lying all alone by the roadside?' — 'No, no, miss,' he answered, smiling, and offering me a handful of ripe pears; 'I don't weary: I'm just waiting, — waiting. I think I'm about ripe now, and I must soon fall to the ground; and then, just think, the Lord will pick me up! O miss! you are young yet, and perhaps just in blossom: turn well round to the Sun of Righteousness, that you may ripen sweet for his service.'"