FirstFruits.

“Wait! Don’t forget your blueberries and green beans!”

She rushed back in the house to grab the two little plastic bags, filled with the first fruits of her Spring garden and tied off with twist ties.

I waited outside, gathering the paper scraps of seed packets we’d just planted together and Charlie’s play yard stretched across the lawn nearby. Florida’s first April breeze lifted my hair off the back of my neck and, as I watched it blow through the surrounding trees, I breathed in deep that old, familiar comfort of my Aunt Debbie’s home.

 I’ve always loved it at my aunt’s house. It’s slower there. Simpler. Filled with a peace I didn’t know to be God’s Spirit until much later in life. There’s lots of projects in progress and something always to be a part of. Seeds to plant, plants to harvest, eggs to collect, a new recipe to try, a crafting, sewing, or woodworking project she’ll teach you if you’re willing, an antique fair or vendor market planned out on the calendar, a new book she can’t wait to talk about, a deeper revelation of the Lord’s love revealed in her quiet time, communion crackers and juice daily laid out on her end table, the evidence of a heart prepared for all the people who trust her with their prayers. In my 32 years, I can’t remember many times I’ve come to my Aunt Debbie’s house and left empty handed either. Pieces of these projects come home with you as you express which ones are exciting to you. Hospitality is something she does exceptionally.

As she emerged again, I could see the baggies contained enough green beans to stack upon Justin and I’s plates alongside a protein for dinner that same night, and a small handful of blueberries we could purée for Charlie’s expanding palate as she explores solids. It wasn’t anything extravagant but it was intentional and, to me, that’s why it meant so much. It was a gift offered out of what her hands were already busy with, and yet it did not feel about the tangible gift at all. It does not ever feel about the tangible gift, but about the invitation behind it. An invitation to a different kind of living. I drove home with those baggies of green beans and blueberries begging me to RSVP. 

It wasn’t the only invitation I’d gotten to step into a new kind of living lately.

A few days earlier I wasn’t even sure I’d make it to my aunt’s house. I’d woken up with a sore throat, scooped my daughter from her crib, and considered how the plans I had for the day (maybe the week) would have to change. Reluctantly, I’d made a call to my weekly Bible study leader that I’d be missing our morning group. Then I pulled Charlie to my chest to eat, right there in bed, and I reached for the TV remote. “Not before you’ve met with Me,” I heard God say. 

Listen, I’m not much of a morning person. I’ve come to terms with that. I thought a morning person liked to be up in the stillness of the early hours, before the rest of her house arose. That she could stir slowly and still earn the title. Justin has corrected me that not wanting to speak or be spoken to before 8:00 am does not, in fact, count as being a morning person. But, I tried my best to be obedient to God anyway.  I wasn’t mentally ready to get into the long list of questions that crowds my mind most days or all the world’s wrongs that need righting- and I figured that’s not how He wanted to be greeted first thing in the morning either- so I decided just to praise Him. For those first few moments of my day, I paused to offer prayers of thanksgiving for the people I love and anything I could think of that felt like it was going pretty well lately. And then, mid-sentence, my sore throat soothed and I immediately straightened. My eyes widened, and I practiced swallowing over and over, trying to search for what I knew had been there just moments before. For the rest of the week, that sore throat never came back. I was healed, and I understood that God was beginning a conversation with me about first fruits.

 Maybe you’ve come across the mention of first fruits in your Bible. Firstfruits began as a Jewish festival to thank God for His provision before the grain harvest. The book of Leviticus lays out a special firstfruits offering which was collected during this time. None of Israel’s grain was to be harvested until all the nation had brought their firstfruits offerings before the Lord. It was a way to give Him the first and the best of the harvest- to honor Him as their Provider. Proverbs 3:9-10 details a promise attached to the firstfruits offering as well: “Honor the Lord with your possessions, and with the firstfruits of all your increase; so your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will overflow with new wine.” 

We might think that offering God our firstfruits is strictly a financial concept founded in an agrarian society but, having been released from the weight of covenant law through the cross, there is now no sin in neglecting the firstfruits offering. 2 Corinthians 9:7 reminds us we are free to give what we have decided in our hearts, not reluctantly or under compulsion. God loves a cheerful giver. The New Testament only speaks of firstfruit offerings symbolically now. Paul calls a group of believers the firstfruits, or first converts, of their region (Romans 16:5, 1 Corinthians 16:15).  James calls believers in general the firstfruits of God’s creatures, highlighting how they are set apart for His glory. The book of Romans speaks of having the firstfruits of the Spirit (Romans 8:23). Even Jesus Himself is referred to as the firstfruits of those who have passed away (1 Corinthians 16:2). He is not the last to rise from the dead. No, praise God, He was the first and now we have hope of the same promise through Him. 

My green beans and blueberries bounced in their baggies, the rhythm of the road rocking my baby girl to sleep in the back seat, as God continued to show me this connection. While the firstfruits offering is no longer an obligation, it has not lost its value. The promise attached to it will not be neglected because Jesus did not come to abolish those old covenant laws, but to fulfill them (Matthew 5:17). The Old Testament promise to always have enough if we put God first is confirmed in the New Testament today. Matthew 6:33 reads, “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be provided to you.”  

When we honor God with our firstfruits, we are expressing gratitude for all He has given us. However, God is so generous that He doesn’t just receive the “thank you.” Honoring him with the first and best of what we have invites Him to bless the rest. We praise, and He provides.

It’s a principle for our finances, just like it was for the Israelites. God had once told the Israelites that they could test Him in this principle. If they would bring Him their whole tithe, they would see Him “open the floodgates of Heaven and pour out so much blessing that there would not be room enough to store it” (Malachi 3:10). 

But, here’s the thing… it’s not just for our finances.

It’s for our time.

Giving God the firstfruits of my day had positioned my heart in a way which allowed the promise of His healing, laid out in His Word, to flow freely. I wasn’t chasing an answer to why some are healed and others are not, or how to get it for myself or someone I loved. I was simply showing up to sit with Him. And yet, He had come with an understanding about healing I didn’t know I’d been striving for, for years. Striving can be subtle. To have released the answer through striving would have been to reward self effort. To reward self effort would have been to deny that our salvation (and all that it pertains) can come only through a Savior. To deny the need for a Savior would have withdrawn the only relief for a world soaked in sin. Offering God the firstfruits of our time means acknowledging that all He’s ever asked us to do is sit with Him and get to know His heart. That’s the only place healing and every spiritual gift will ever flow from.

It’s for our resources.

 My Aunt Debbie had literally given the firstfruits from her garden to the Lord by offering them to me. Just like always, she’d looked at the resources she had and offered the first of them to Him. Matthew 25:40 reminds us whatever is done for one of the “least of these” is done for God Himself. Neither of us knew it then but, not more than a few days later, my aunt would announce the addition of a first grandchild… the firstfruits of a new generation.

And it’s for our gifts.

It had only been four days since I’d called work to let them know I wouldn’t be returning from my maternity leave. Though I knew God was calling me to be home writing books and raising babies, I had started to feel burdened by the thought of losing an income to do it. Would we be okay without this second income? And how would I make room to write if I was also having to look for part-time or remote work? As much as I asked, God seemed to be silent. I only knew that He had said stay. So, after much wrestling, and though I was still scared, I stepped away from work without much of a plan. 

Just on the other side of this leap of faith, God was now giving me my next step. Scripture tells us He’ll be right behind us whispering “this is the way, walk in it” (Isaiah 30:21). Now here He was extending an invitation for the season I’d just said yes to. An invitation to offer my firstfruits to Him and watch what He would do.

 I had first started blogging because it was a joy to express myself creatively at the same time that I was encouraging God’s people. The more I wrote, the more I wanted to write. Writing slows me down and gives me a different perception of the world. It makes me a noticer. Noticing fills me with such gratitude. And I think if we all got honest with ourselves we could admit that we feel like our best selves when we’re operating out of a place of gratitude, too. Somewhere along the way, however, a prophecy had been spoken over me about how I’d use these gifts for God. Not wanting to disappoint Him, I’d looked to that vision shared instead of only looking to Him. I had tried so hard to shape my life in a way that might support it. I set aside time to work but spent more of it contacting established authors to hear how they did it or publishers to pitch my ideas than I actually did writing. And of course there was the work I did to make an income, my child’s medical complexities, all of the “real life” that feels like it confuses the calls we have. I had gotten to a place where my gifts no longer were acts of worship offered freely.

Now I’m understanding I can offer Him the first of my writing, even before He chooses to do anything with it. He was making it known that He wants the first draft, in all its messy, unedited glory. Isn’t it funny how He can bring us back around to the same, simple things we once set out to do but with so much more depth?

That night, I dumped the baggie of blueberries in the blender to make a puree for Charlie. As I thought of my aunt’s faithfulness with her firstfruits, I thought about all the produce still to come from her now mature plants. Surely she would have plenty to enjoy herself. And then I thought about this small amount she’d sacrificed in obedience and how it was being used to nourish another of God’s children coming along behind her. I was so grateful for such fresh, organic produce to give my girl as her gut still matures. That’s just the way God works. It all belongs to Him- our finances, our time, our resources, our gifts- but He blesses the leftovers of whatever is first offered to Him. Even the firstfruits are used to bring someone else along.

So, here I am with my “FirstFruits.” 

It’s a kind of declaration about where God has me.  

It’s an understanding that I don’t need to know all the details to decide if I’ll be faithful.

It’s a new level of discipline to the blog. 

Meet you back here next month for more.