Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth…the fruit tree that yields fruit after its own kind” … and it was so! And the earth brought forth… the tree that yields fruit after its own kind. And God saw that it was good! (Genesis 1:11a, 12a).
Cherries for sale, two miles ahead!
Fresh-picked cherries for sale, one mile ahead!
Plump cherries for sale, ½ mile ahead!
Sweet cherries for sale, ¼ mile ahead!
Juicy cherries for sale, next exit!
My husband and I were en route from Southern California to my son’s August wedding in Oregon. It had been a long day of car travel when the road-side signs for Grandma Nana’s produce stand began popping up. It seemed a little late in the summer for cherry picking. But, Grandma Nana beckoned to us to come buy her delicious cherries with such enthusiasm that we were hopeful and helpless to resist one last taste of God’s seasonal bounty.
We exited off a little dirt road, dust flying as we snaked our way around to Grandma Nana’s stand, a little ramshackle shed in the middle of a large vacant field, and parked. We entered the little lean-to shack and were greeted with a grunt and a grumble from “Grandma Nana”—in actuality, a rotund, grizzled and grumpy old man. Sweat was dripping down his forehead which he wiped off with his floral apron. “Grandma Nana” waddled towards us, peeping through one squinting eye as smoke from his dangling cigarette assaulted it.
“We’d like to buy some cherries, please,” I said.
Grandma Nana harrumphed, “Don’t got no cherries! Ain’t cherry season!” “But… we got onions.”
Isn’t that the way it goes? Nothing wrong with onions; I love onions… but the point is, I was promised cherries. Every sign along the way assured me that cherries were in my future if I continued along that chosen path.
Today, I am sure this happens numerous times a day along the Superhighway of the internet. “Click here” and you will and you will gain a tasty digital morsel. But just like the Pot o’ Gold at the end of the Rainbow, that digital bait never materializes. Certainly, the “bait and switch” happens in the brick-and-mortar world as well.
Oh, how many times have we fallen victim to the carrot chase, having been lured, and promised the fruit of our efforts, only to be redirected by life’s cruel charlatan “Nanas”? As we will see, not all of life’s Nanas are diabolical. But not all of life’s forays will end well.
Two Nanas, the wise and the foolish are presented in Proverbs 9:1-18; both beckon the simple; “‘Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!’ To him who lacks a heart of wisdom she says…” (4, 16). Both are offering the promise of satisfaction. Each is vying for the mind of the simple and unwise. One is seeking to help educate; the other is hoping to consume the victim.
The woman of wisdom offers a meal of integrity, one which has taken time to prepare: “Come, eat of my bread, And drink of the wine I have mixed” (2, 5). The woman of folly offers one of compromise, and minimal effort, “Stolen water is sweet; And bread eaten in secret is pleasant” (17). And, as we would expect, the woman of wisdom promises noble gain, “Forsake your simplicity and live, And step into the way of understanding” (6). Whereas the woman of folly only a diminished future; “But he does not know that the dead are there, Thatthose she called are in the depths of Sheol” (18).
One says, “Be wise and walk in understanding”—Good Nana! In the end, the other offers only a way of death—Bad Nana!
A meal with the wise, or with corpses… hmmm. Seems like an easy choice… yet, so often the way we choose lacks discernment. Who have you listened to? Wisdom is found only in God through Christ.
“The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of wisdom,
And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding” (10).
Be smart! Wait for the good fruit. Hold out for the cherries!
By Shelley (Larson) Pollock—1954-2023 (with a little help from her favorite youngest brother, Kelly)
