Apple

I was eating an apple the other day and I started to think about the parts of an apple.  You have the tough outer skin, the soft porous inside, a stem at the top and the four sort of feet or bumps at the bottom, and the piece that holds the whole apple together the core.  As I looked at this apple sitting in front of me, I saw how an apple can be a real representation of a person.

The outer skin represents a person’s out shell.   How they interact with people and their environment.  Often we are tough, and standoffish.  We may be shy.  Sometimes we are really outgoing or excited and like a fresh new apple off the tree our outer shell is not prepared for what the outside world has for us.  We either don’t want to be too vulnerable and worry about how people precise us or we don’t care what people think of us.  If we take either of these approaches over time like the apple we will become bruised or soft because of the way people treat us and the abuse we take.  There is a right time to peel the apple show our soft inner core and start the process over again with a new skin.

The soft porous inside of the apple represents who we are and how we treat others.  Like an unripe apple we can often be tough and judgmental.   Sometimes we are a push over and worry wart like a spoiled rotting apple.  Other times we are just right we are soft enough to enjoy people, be kind to others and help people but at the same time hard enough not to be overwhelmed or used by others.  The different stages of an apple as it goes from unripe to ripe to rotten truly can show how we live our lives.

The stem at the top of the apple shows us that we need something to hang onto.  Life can punish us if we are not careful.  Just the daily grind can wear us down if we don’t have friends, family, and co workers to hang on to.  We need stems so that we can latch onto the branches of the tree of life which represent our friends and family reaching out to hold us and help us when times are hard.

The four bumps represent our feet.  We have to be able to stand up straight.  Whether that is physically standing up straight or being able to state what we believe and who we believe in and having a foot to stand on.  Often in life we are shaken from the tree and we fall, but it is our feet that help us land on the ground.  Just like the apple that can stand up straight because of its bumps, we have our feet and they keep us firmly on the ground.

The core of the apple holds it together.  It stores the seeds that allow for other apple trees to be grown when planted, and it is the center of the apple.  Our core is our soul.  We must have a strong soul to be able to hold ourselves together.  God provides each of us each our own souls.  We determine who we are by our core, our core beliefs, standards, actions, and emotions.  We are blessed to be able to make decisions for ourselves and to continuously form and mold our cores.  Like the apple we stand tall, we stand firm, and we are strong in what we believe. 

Just like the wind spreads the apple seeds throughout the world, the Holy Spirit fills us with God’s love and allows us to go out into the world and share our outer shell, our soft porous inside, our stem, our feet, and our core with other people and their apples.

Bet you will never look at an apple the same way again!