you will know them by their fruits

Something that is very different and cool to me about Mozambique is that there is always a fruit that is in season. There is no such thing as harvest season because something is always ready to be harvested. There are still distinct seasons, now we are currently on the tail end of the rainy/hot season, but they aren't necessarily as drastic as in North America.

I have a couple fruit trees in my yard. A mango tree and a lemon tree. Mango season ended a couple weeks ago and the lemons will soon be ripe. There is always a new fruit and taste to look forward to. With that said there are also several fruits here that I have never heard of and still can't pronounce the names of correctly. Most of them I have never tried before, some I don't necessarily care to try any time in the future.

One day as I was walking down my street I came across my neighbor, Castelo. He was energetic as usual. He had something in his hand, so I curiously asked what it was. He said it was "uma laranja" (an orange). This didn't seem right to me as the fruit he was holding was obviously very green. So I told him, "Isso fruta esta verde, nao laranja." (This fruit is green, not orange.) He assured me that it was an orange even though it is green. I trusted him and later tried one for myself. Sure enough he was right and this "green" orange was actually pretty tasty, but more like a hybrid between a lemon and an orange.

One other thing different here is that trees are identified by the fruit they bear. I know that may seem like common sense at first, but almost all of the trees here produce fruit and that is how they are identified. There are mango trees, orange trees, lemon trees, mafura trees, guava trees, pomegranate trees, and coconut trees.

This reminds me of an illustration I often used when spending friday nights evangelizing in downtown oklahoma city. We would talk about the signs of a true believer, what a Christian's life will look like. In matthew 7 Jesus talks about true believers being recognized by their fruits. An apple tree is going to grow apples, end of story. Same thing with an orange tree, it is growing to grow oranges. Now there are different varieties of apples, as well as oranges (whether green or orange), but the same truth remains. No matter how badly an apple tree wants to produce oranges it is still going to grow apples. That's its identity, what it is capable of. When our hearts are changed as Christians, we are given that new identity and have no other destiny but to produce the fruits of a Christian.

As I've been living here and seen trees be recognized by their fruits, this part of scripture has added a new dimension to my life. These trees around me are given a name, that name is given based on what is produced and growing from them. The same is true of me. Have I really been producing fruit that I want to be known by and for my life to be identified by?