Julie Lavender

Consider the Dewberry

By Julie Lavender

My quarantine walk with God looks different than pre-Covid walks. With less traffic on some of the roads surrounding my neighborhood, I’ve taken a different path. But, the coronavirus has led most of us on different paths, right?

My trek past the cows in the pasture and the old sharecropper shack that’s about to topple leads me down a lane with dewberries growing on either side of the highway. 

The succulent, ripe berries growing close to the ground remind me of days gone by, picking dewberries in the back field of the property where I grew up.  

When I returned from my walk, I told my shelter-in-place buddies – the hubby and the two younger adult kids of our four children – that we should go for a picnic the next day at my mom’s old trailer, and then pick dewberries while they are in season.

We haven’t picked dewberries in several seasons – just too busy with life each time those deep purple-ish, black berries ripen. Tasting a lot like blackberries, dewberries grow wild and seem to ripen before blackberries do. A pre-sweet-treat.

Full of briars and thorns, the dewberry vines grow close to the ground and produce yummy fruit that both humans and wildlife enjoy.  

The field is overgrown and in disarray, yet the berries grow prolifically.”Just pick the good ones,“ my husband said. “There’s plenty to choose from.”

We filled our bucket with berries, then returned home to make a cobbler. 

And then, for a late-night snack, we pressed the berries, strained the seeds, and added the juice to vanilla ice cream for milkshakes. 

Sweet delicacies prepared from one of God’s many delicious creations.

I’ve often pondered if dewberries grew on the ground in the Garden of Eden. I guess there were no thorns and briars to poke Adam’s and Eve’s fingers as they sampled the fresh, ripened berries.

So many changes since the Garden of Eden….so many changes in the last couple of months.

But one thing remains the same: 

God is good. God is ALWAYS good. 

And so are his many gifts to us. 

Thank you, God, for sweet treats and beautiful creations.

Is there something this week in God's creation that has reminded you of His goodness? Will you share below?