Fruit: Signs of Ripeness (blog)

I've read that with peaches, nectarines and other stone fruits there's a difference between maturity and ripeness. As I understand it, while in mature fruit the sugar and other ingredients needed to (in time) contribute to flavor have developed, in ripe fruit those same ingredients have actually come together in tender, juicy sweetness. In a peach that has fully matured, and that's ripening and ready to pick, the skin around the stem is creamy gold in color (or even orange if it's going to be really sweet). Mature fruit also has a feeling of heaviness to it. Though still firm, mature stone fruit can be harvested and then ripened off the tree.  Once ripened, peaches are aromatic and have softened a bit around the stem area. Knowing some things about maturity and ripeness helps harvesters recognize fruit that's ready to pick. In this blog series I've been writing about how Jesus urged his followers to look more closely and see signs of 'ripeness' in the people of Sychar, a Samaritan town where he and the disciples stopped to rest from their journey. Jesus was talking about a spiritual harvest, the fruit being a Samaritan woman he had talked with and the other people of Sychar who would believe in him as their Savior after hearing the woman's testimony about him (John 1-42).What signs of ripeness (or at least of spiritual maturity) did Jesus see? The woman didn't immediately reveal anything. She wasn't expecting a savior to come that day or in that place, and she didn't see one in the weary man she was speaking with who was asking her for a drink from a nearby well.  All she saw (at first) were their differences: "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan..."Even when Jesus gently tugged on her, by telling her about the "living water" that he could give her (if she asked for it), the woman resisted:"...you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep..." She may have been firm with her observations but her questions must have signaled a softening, an openness to Jesus, because they kept the conversation going: "How can you ask me for a drink?"..."Are you greater than our father Jacob...?"..."Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place we must worship is in Jerusalem." At one point in the conversation the woman seemed to be inviting Jesus closer in: "Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here." And in a moment of transparency she revealed the truth to him: "I have no husband...""Jesus said to her, 'You are right when you say you have no husband.  The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband.'" Jesus knew about fruit and harvesting. He knew the woman's story and he cared for her. He mentioned her broken relationships, but only after offering her the new life that would bring her into relationship with him forever. As their conversation deepened, the Samaritan woman revealed to Jesus that she was waiting, perhaps longing for a savior: "'I know that Messiah' (called Christ) 'is coming.'" Jesus was the one she had been waiting for, who had come to save her! He knew that the Gospel message of God's grace would bring this woman's brokenness and her longing for someone to save her together into spiritual ripeness, a readiness to believe in him. After talking with him, the woman encouraged the other people in her town to come and meet Jesus. Her enthusiastic witness is so sweet! "Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did.  Could this be the Christ?" At their urging, Jesus stayed with the people of Sychar for 2 more days and, like the woman, they also put their faith in him: "We no longer believe just because of what you said," they told her after, "now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world."