Last week, my girls and I went out to my parent’s farm and picked grapes. It was all of our first times eating vine ripened and picked grapes-what a treat! They were a beautiful dusty pale green and had a sweetness similar to gummy candy, according to my five-year old. These grapes were intentionally cultivated by my dad, with his grandchildren in mind, planned and nurtured for this exact summer and many to come. It is such a joy to live within driving distance of my parents, something we haven’t always had.

Also last week, a friend offhandedly mentioned that her fence line is covered in wild grapes, Mustang grapes, tart and a bit prickly, but ooh so good for jelly. “Do you want to come over and pick some?” she asked. Again, for the second time in a span of three days, we found ourselves picking grapes, this time a gorgeous deep purple. Matthew, our friends, and I picked grapes while all of the kids played together; we had a lovely time.

On the way home, holding a big brown bag full of grapes, a whispered prayer repeated. “God, thank you for these friends, thank you for these people.” For many years, I felt alone, in limbo between the high school friends I still love and adore and the hope of local friends to walk through life with. Our family moved here to this area during the summer of 2020, at the height of Covid, where it was safer in many ways to cocoon. Finding a church to participate in via zoom was easier than expected, but community was still just a kernel of hope for months, until I had a difficult miscarriage and driven by grief, we reached out to the church we had been watching online and cold-called the secretary. That day, a lovely lady came by and dropped a bag of goodies for us and invited to me join a zoom Bible study. A man who is now a dear friend called Matthew to introduce himself and to talk. A woman in the church who had experienced miscarriage texted me. This is the church. This was the community we had been praying for. Now, three-ish years later, our community has deepened and grown in ways that could only be of God. We aren’t all the same and it can be messy and kids can have tantrums at the worst times and feelings can be hurt but that’s just real life. Even when it’s hard, these people are so valuable and I love them.

So yes, I am so thankful for the green grapes and the purple grapes, but the knee-to-knee community and family that God has surrounded us in is the real gift. The vines are good and so is the fruit.