Authentic Fruit

The pastors of our church are teaching for six weeks on the topic “Designed to Bear Fruit”. It reminded me of a staff meeting from a few months ago. Yeah, really.

Sandi Vojta, the winemaker for Prairie Berry winery, where I work, was trying to help us understand why the very same wine can taste different from one vintage (release) to the next.  Customers often ask this question.  

She told us that South Dakota fruit changes much season to season because of extreme weather variations. She uses as much South Dakota fruit as possible in making her wines, so this is an important factor. She explained that there is a way to chemically alter the properties of the fruit in order to produce wine that tastes similar year to year. This is what most large wineries do, because customers expect consistency in a brand. However, she chooses to preserve the authenticity of the fruit, with its variations and idiosyncrasies, in the wine. When you taste a bottle of her wine, you taste the fruit the way it was when picked. Therefore, a “Brianna” wine from 2009 may not taste the same as a “Brianna” wine from 2010.

I began to consider how this is a beautiful picture of the fruit that God produces through us. In John 15:5, Jesus identifies himself as the Vine; we are the branches that bear fruit.

“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you [are] the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit, for without Me you can do nothing”. John 15:4-5 (NKJV)

The fruit He is referring to here, which we bear, or bring forth, is authentic. He isn’t interested in us altering the fruit so that it resembles that of another person’s fruit. The fruit is unique because the bearer is unique. We tend to think it should be the same. We compare our fruit to that of others, and fear it doesn’t measure up, so we try to alter it to match. But He desires that our fruit be authentic. That when others “taste and see” the wine made of the real, genuine fruit, they will know God good, because that wine complements their palate.

So what makes fruit authentic? I think, that it resembles the best of the bearer - that is, God’s spirit in us motivating us to do good. It will have the unique sweet flavor of our gifts, abilities, and affinities. The sweet will be balanced with the unique tartness; even bitterness, of our pain and struggles. The right tartness blended with the distinctive sweet creates the full flavor of the specific kind of fruit. Did you know there are over 600 varieties of grapes? He didn’t create them to all taste the same.

So you see, if we have pre-conceived ideas about what fruit should look like, what it should taste like, we will chemically alter it by trying to please other people, or even trying to please God because we have this idea in our heads that He only likes zinfandel grapes, because zinfandel grapes do certain things and look a certain way. This limits us. It limits us because we cannot taste the joy of experiencing the profound effect we have on others just by being who we are.

Let your fruit be like a South Dakota grape: peculiar, odd, offbeat, authentic. Others are waiting; needing, to taste it.---alg