APPLEOLOGY
Appleology is - the study of - and observations about - apples!
During our last Phoenix Seminary spring break, Darryl and I enjoyed some time in Watsonville, California. Watsonville is a gardener's paradise. One of our favorite places is a plant nursery which we visit as often as we can. While there, we discovered a photo collage in the gift shop capturing the same scene in a local apple orchard over the course of all four seasons. At the top of the collage someone had added the term - appleology!
We were so excited that we purchased the collage and then afterward tried to figure out where to put it! You see, we have loved apples for years, especially since Darryl taught through the book of Ecclesiastes and began shaping his own unique version of "appleology" theology!
My love of apples began early. Growing up in Iowa we had an abundance of apple trees. As a child I remember hearing about settlers who moved westward across America, carrying apple seedling trees with them. During the 1800's, a pioneer apple planter named John Chapman distributed apples seeds and sprouts to settlers and he became known as Johnny Appleseed! He left behind a tasty legacy for future generations.
Over the years our appleology theology has grown. Here are three of our favorite observations:
1) Life is like a conveyor belt of apples with one apple arriving every 24 hours - extract as much enjoyment as you can by taking the biggest bite possible!
You may not know that there are thousands of varieties of apples. You are probably familiar with some of best known varieties - Delicious, Golden Delicious, Granny Smith, Jonathan, McIntosh, Rome Beauty, to name just a few. Their color ranges from various shades of red -to green - to yellow. Whatever the color, they are juicy and delicious!
2) You can count the number of seeds in an apple, but only God can count the number of apples in a seed.
The apple is a pome - that is, a fruit with a more fleshy outer layer, a paperlike core, and more than one seed. The seeds - usually five - are enclosed in the core. Each seed has the potential of producing a tree that may live as long as 100 years - similar to a long human lifespan - and each tree can produce thousands of apples.
3) Even bad apples - the kind that cause us to cringe - can be embraced because they make us better people!
Since humans enjoy apples, it follows that pests would, too. So, once in a while, you might find a wormlike larva called an apple maggot in your apple. That's because the female fruit fly lays its eggs under the skin of apples. The apple maggots which hatch from these eggs burrow through the flesh of the apple, leaving rusty streaks in it. YUCK! We all have had the experience of biting into a juicy, delicious apple and seeing the path of a worm - or worse - seeing half of a worm!
Not all apples are the same - some are sweet, some are sour, some have worms. It is my choice to seek to EXTRACT as much enjoyment as I can from each moment, to remember that my life can IMPACT future generations tremendously and to choose to EMBRACE adversity as much as the good times! The truth is - each apple is what it is - a simple but graphic reminder that I am dust and my days on earth are precious and few. APPLEOLOGY!
