As I bit into the beautiful apricot, I
was expecting the sweet familiarity of a fruit I have known all my
life, but instead, I received an explosion of sour. I knew it was still
early in the year for the best apricots when I purchased a bag full at
my local market. I made the premature purchase because I wanted the
first taste of an apricot to come and usher in the beginning of my
summer. I had rushed something that needed more time to become the sweet fruit I was expecting. I was disappointed, but not surprised. You cannot rush the maturity of fruit.

As a young boy, I picked apricots during the summer. I spent many
hours atop a ladder in the orchards surrounding Los Gatos, California.
My first ritual during those early mornings was to climb to the top of
my ladder and pick a perfectly ripe apricot still covered with morning
dew. It would be hard to describe the taste to you if the only apricot
you have known came from a store. Only an apricot eaten in the fullness
of its perfection and picked straight from a tree, can provide such an
experience.

While the sour taste of the unripened apricot filled
my mouth the Lord said, “Tell them to wait for the sweet fruit.” Upon
hearing those words, I sensed something prophetic being given to me for
people whose lives are beginning to bear new fruit in a new season. You
have waited a long time to finally see the fruit that is beginning to
appear on the vine of your labor, but it is still too early. Your fruit
is still maturing. It looks like mature fruit, but it does not carry the
sweet impact God intends. God is using this time to bring your fruit to
a fullness of flavor. He is asking you to wait just a little longer. Once you taste what God has done in these
final days of maturing you will understand why He asked you to wait
before you begin your harvest.