God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
Genesis 1:28
I was walking home recently and it occurred to me that it’s one thing to compliment someone and something a little different to encourage someone. Complimenting someone can be an encouragement, don’t get me wrong. It’s just that there was something more to being encouraged.
A compliment expresses a positive thing, an encouragement looks to build on something. Compliments tell us how beautiful the garden is, encouragement tells us to keep on keeping on with the cultivating of the garden.
We are fruitful together – it’s a relational thing, yet in the blessing is the encouragement to let the fruit multiply, increase, go beyond us in kind. Not just the fruit of us, but fruit beyond us.
That increase in the form of childbearing is an expression of fruit beyond us. Fruit beyond us though, is it just about children? It’s beautiful to see in children that came from the womb, it’s also beautiful to see in that which sprang off the glorious ongoing interactions and investment of fruitful relationships.
So be encouraged – go be fruitful.
(Photo by Brooke Lark on Unsplash)
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
C. L. J. Dryden
Life With CD 