Galatians 5:22-23 But the Fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. (NIV)
Every time I read this verse in Galatians, I think of my friend, Jane, and what her immediate thoughts were when she read it. She pictured a train and each car had the individual name of a Fruit of the Spirit on it. I really liked that concept and now think of it every time I read the verse. It stuck and continues to stick.
My youngest grandson, Jacob, is really starting to play with trains and has figured out how to hitch them together and put them on the track. Thomas, Gordon, James, Henry, Edward, Bertie, Percy, Diesel and Bill are nine of the trains he plays with. Some of these are the engines that pull and the others are the ones pulled. Jacob can direct them go where ever he wants by pushing them along the tracks because Jacob is in charge.
There are nine components that make up the Fruit of the Spirit train. So visualize a train and put the Spirit as the engine and then the love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control as the ones being pulled. It's moving along the tracks going somewhere. You might have questions, like where is the train coming from?
Where does God want it to go? And is it hard to get to that place? The answer is no.
As long as God is at the front of our lives (the engine), the fruits (the pulled trains) will follow naturally. Jacob's trains aren't real, but God's trains are and if we ride on God's train, everything will fall into place. We will know where we came from, where we are going and find out that it isn't hard to get there.
Nancy
