The Red Delicious Within Us
In 1872 Joseph Hiatt was walking in his apple orchard. There at his feet next to his “Yellow Bellflower” apple tree was a little sprout coming up from the ground. One sweep of his axe and it was gone. The very next year he found it growing, and again he cut it down. Finally it grew back the third year and to quote Mr. Hiatt, “Well, tarnations, if you are going to be that persistent, we will see what you grow into.”
Some years later, in 1880, this little sprout, now a tree, produced its first apples. After biting into one of them, Mr. Hiatt quickly concluded that it was the best tasting apple he had ever eaten! All of the townsfolk agreed. In 1894, a nurseryman by the name of C.M. Stark gave the apple its name “Red Delicious.”
CONSIDER the fact that today- of the over 1,000 different varieties of apples, the Red Delicious is the most popular and most sold apple in the United States.
One word came to my mind as I read how the Red Delicious apple came to be, and that word is perseverance. I thought about that first little sprout that grew without any encouragement, and then kept coming back in spite of being repeatedly cut down. I also thought that if that little sprout did not have with in it such perseverance, the world would not have the favorite Red Delicious.
CONSIDER for a moment how God has placed within each person a “Red Delicious,” something special and unique. If allowed no encouragement to grow and bear fruit, it would be lost forever. Unfortunately, the world keeps cutting down those sprouts with discouraging attitudes and words. Words such as: “You can’t do that because (insert reason here).” Whereas God affirms us at the moment of conception, and places within each of us a “Red Delicious.” And if we can persevere and receive some encouragement along the way, we will be pleased and somewhat surprised, at just what we “grow into.”
Rev. Wendell Mettey
October 2, 1989
Revised May 2013
