The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

The best and most sun-kissed fruit grows out on the ends of the branches, away from the safety of the trunk and foliage.

The fruit will only ever be as good as the root. 

Just checking out where I've planted myself.

This world is a beautiful miracle. I have just been sitting outside in the morning sun watching the bees laboriously collecting nectar from the lavender bush, and pondering the complex eco-system and the creative wonder that is our natural world. Or what's left of it. A world that we have, as a race systematically abused, exploited and (in some countries) virtually destroyed, so that the delicate natural habitat of many of the innocent creatures with whom we share this verdant globe, has all but disappeared. It is such a heartbreaking shame. Yet I am hopeful that there is still time to reverse this tragic situation before it really is too late. Now that would be a beautiful miracle. 

The Liverpool poet Brian Patten has written this line in one of his poems, and I can't stop thinking about it. Nothing is ever as perfect as you want it to be. Not this side of heaven, anyway. But sometimes I wish it was. Sometimes I wish I could fix things, so that dreams came true, and so that all those disappointments I often see in the faces of those I meet, and that I witness in my own and other peoples lives, were little celebrations of joy instead of sorrow. That on this earth good can triumph over evil. (I'm told it does eventually, but sometimes it's hard to see it and believe it.) That the good guy really can win in the end. That the girl gets the guy of her dreams; that he will love her, take care of her and their children, and won't walk out on her. That the sick child might live. (I will one day blog my Uganda trips). But there again, I like films with happy endings, and I want everyone's story to have a happy ending, even those that don't care, or even realise that this is what they want. Because in the big eternal picture, this is what we all really need. So I wish I could fix that thing inside me which is not perfect, and which has a tendency to trip me up, and make me less than the best I can be. I see it in everyone; hiding and waiting round the corner to jump out and derail us all when we least expect it. Breaking up the happy picture. The happy friendships. The happy family. The happy nation. Our happy world. So I accept it, and I trust that with a little help I can keep standing and get strength from the One who defeated it. And trust that one day there will be a happy ending. But meanwhile, nothing is ever as perfect as you want it to be.   

The papers make particularly depressing reading today. Aggression, violence and murder. Everywhere. In my street. In my city. Across our country. All over our world. No thought. No kindness. No patience. No tolerance. No compassion. No love. No hope, it seems. Surrounded by cowards using violence, guns and knives. Leo Roskin is right. 'It is the weak who are cruel. Gentleness can only be expected from the strong'. Tomorrow is a new day, a new start with a new opportunity. And perhaps a new hope.