I didn't hold much hope for its survival, but that little tomato start hung in there and grew and grew...and now is expressing its gratitude with tiny red, joy-prompting globes. “Cherry tomatoes.” Maybe call them “cheery tomatoes,” too, because their vibrant red skin promises delight inside, and I am not disappointed when I add them to my meal.
With time, my pitiful clearance plant grew strong and fruitful. So it is in the Christian walk, with time as we take in the nourishment of Living Water (scripture) and bask in the Sun of Righteousness (the Lord Jesus). And maybe that's another way of looking at His parable about the fig tree (Luke 13:6-9). In the parable, a barren tree was due for the rubbish pile because it just didn't produce figs. The farmer decided to give it one more year to prove itself. The analogy is to complacent Christians who aren't going anywhere in their faith walk. The lesson of “one last chance” holds both hope and fear.
Tomatoes, of course, are “annuals” with just one chance to bloom and yield fruit. Then the cycle begins again with the tiny seeds in each fruit that can carry on the fruit line. Without reproducing believers, faith would not grow and spread.
Living in an agrarian society, Jesus wisely taught from common things the people knew in their quest to feed and house their families with the basic necessities. And though our times have taken food production to new and sophisticated levels (ever eaten a green house tomato?), the lessons of God's creation never fail to teach again, and again.
Maybe next time you grab a tomato to put in a salad or BLT, pause a moment. That red globe didn't pop out of the air. God had a plan for it to grow and reproduce. Sound (humanly) familiar?
