Guest Contributor, Lorraine Strohbehn
Today’s post was written by our monthly guest contributor, Lorraine Strohbehn (my mom).
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Our four children were young and full of energy. That was great to tap into as strawberry season arrived. What a treat those berries would be when we got them from our freezer during the winter—not to think of the meal we would have while they were fresh-picked.
A family in our church had a generous strawberry patch they enjoyed for the first picking. The second picking, if we would simply go and pick them, was their gift to our family. The very thought of those sumptuous, sweet red berries woke all six of us pretty early the morning of the picking. Because it always occurred during the week of our Bible School it meant that everyone needed to get up extra early and don their workin’ duds, and we would drive out to pick strawberries. The faithful workers filled several small buckets, had six sets of wet clothes because of the morning dew, and a ravenous hunger for fresh strawberries over ice cream.
There was no time for stemming them all, so everyone but mom got cleaned up and got into Bible School clothes and ready for an exciting day. I cleaned and stemmed a generous pan of the berries, cut and mashed some of them, added some sweetening, and put them in the refrigerator so they were ready for our noon meal following Bible School.
I followed to help in Bible School, then, at the close, there was a mad dash for home. What a time we had! Good nutrition was set aside for that day, and the table contained two items: first, a generous container of ice cream; then, a giant bowl of fresh-picked strawberries. Everyone could have all his or her heart desired. It was the meal. As we did this over a number of years, we eventually added fresh waffles for the base, as the children were older with more demanding appetites.
How eager everyone was to work, because they knew the pay was fabulous! They all did a good job. How many opportunities have I missed through the years to make work fun? Matthew 10:10 says, “…for the workman is worthy of his meat.” Sometimes the pay is simply thank you, maybe a pat on the back, maybe the words, “I am proud of you,” and maybe even ice cream with all the strawberries your heart desires.
When we know Christ as Savior, the reward we should look forward to most is seeing Him face to face and hearing the words from Matthew 25:21, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.” The word good here simply means God has made each of us special (Psalm 139:13-16) to serve him in a certain way; then, our commendation comes when we use the way He made us to serve Him for His glory.