Do you remember the very first Bible verse you learned as a child? I do. I learned it while listening to a little book that I cherished, A Blackberry Named Patty. My book had pictures only colored with an overlay of lavender-purple on the otherwise black and white pages. I had a cassette tape to go with it, and as I would listen to the story, I would hear "ding" when it was time to turn the page. I had many books like this, and you may have as well, if you were born in 1973, like I was.
This was one of my favorite books from my childhood, and since it was published in January 1977, right before my 4th birthday, my relationship with this book goes way back. The story was, as the title suggests, about 'a blackberry named Patty' who wanted more than anything to be chosen by young sisters who had come to pick blackberries with their grandmother, for the pie they would later make. Patty could hear them talking amongst themselves, and she tried to make herself noticeable to them so they would pick her. She cried out to them in blackberry language, which children and grandmothers do not understand, and she tried to swing herself around so they would see her, but to no avail. Eventually the little group had picked enough blackberries for their pie, and they were off. Patty was heartbroken. Why hadn't they picked her? The breeze began to blow and the rain started falling. Patty lost hold of the branch where she had grown up, and fell to the ground, where she sank down deep. The next summer the children and their grandmother returned, and Patty was beaming with joy! By this time, Patty had grown into a full blackberry bush and her heart nearly burst as so very many berries were chosen from among her leaves and branches, to be carried back home for beautiful blackberry pies! Patty learned the truth of John 12:24, which was deliberately pronounced for us to learn, at the close of the book, resplendent in King James vernacular, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." I remember being perplexed by "a corn of wheat" since I knew corn as corn and wheat as wheat, but nevertheless, I didn't miss out on the truth in this little story, and in the words of John.
God knows the number of our days, and he knows the path we will take. His brilliant sovereignty brought that story and that verse across my path, at the very beginning of my walk with him, because of how it would fit the unfolding of my life. John 12:24 was planted deep in my heart, just where I would need it.
