As he wishes the Spirit gives a different gift to each person (1 Corinthians 12:11)
At Christmas somebody kindly gave us an Amaryllis which we enjoyed as it grew in our lounge.
My wife planted it in the bowl provided as part of the gift, but for a while nothing changed but when the shoot began to grow it quickly made up for lost time and shot up at a prodigious rate.
A bud appeared which by the next day had developed into two, quickly succeeded by more until as the first bud opened I counted six buds which quickly became six large flowers in a gorgeous striped pink, and for a few days was truly spectacular.
But the flowers quickly died and faded away – and only then did the leaves begin to grow.
Our gardens are places of miracles.
Some shrubs produce spectacular flowers that are glorious for a brief time while others produce less showy colours which endure over many weeks. Some vegetables are similarly short-lived while others produce fruits for extended periods.
And what is true of plants is also true of people.
People can be helped by the power of the Holy Spirit, who through our daily walk with God produces the Fruits of the Spirit about which Paul writes in come of his letters to the early churches.
Fruitful lives are an encouragement to the individual who receives the gifts but they are intended to facilitate the growth of the whole fellowship of which that individual is a member.
When we each optimise our individual potential for fruitfulness the whole church benefits, so let us allow the Spirit to facilitate every member reaching full potential.
Those gifts will produce spectacular but short-lived fruit in some of us while in others the fruit is slow to appear but lasts for extended periods.
May we each achieve the full range of fruits that God gives so that our fruitfulness supplies the needs of all.
Malcolm Ray-Smith is a member of Wokingham Methodist Church, writing on behalf of Churches Together in Wokingham
