Lessons from my tomato plants.

I am not an outdoorsy person. At all. I think nature is beautiful, but I believe it should be viewed the way God intended it: through a window.

This could be the reason why, when I said, "I would like to grow a garden this year" that I heard my husband chuckle softly. When I responded with, "Don't worry. All you have to do is till it. I'll do all the work" I'm sure he heard, "Don't worry. I'll make you do all the work while I sit in the house and enjoy the harvest."

However, I have to say that I am proud (and slightly surprised) that I have done a lot of working in the garden myself. The kids have helped, of course, but I've gotten down and dirty with the planting, weeding, and whatnot. Taking care of a garden brings to mind the original garden, the Garden of Eden. How nice it would have been to take care of a garden with no weeds, bugs, or other pests! I'm sure each time Adam had to work in his garden after the fall, he got a profound sadness in his heart, knowing what he had and lost in a moment's time.

It has also brought certain lessons to light. Case in point: my tomato plants.

We bought them from Walmart, good, healthy plants. I started with 3 and ended up with 5, plus a cherry one for Rach. I planted them and they did FANTASTIC!!! They got big and bushy, almost outgrowing the tomato cages I had put around them for support. They started to bear tiny green tomatoes. Yay! Then, something weird happened. They started to wilt, one at a time. I watered them more and it didn't help. I used Miracle grow. That didn't help. I even resorted to using pesticide to kill any nasty bugs I didn't see. Yet they continued to wilt. They also continued to bear fruit but the fruit didn't get very big. I have lately given up on the plants. They are dead and the fruit they were bearing, although starting to turn red, are tiny and rotten. Not good for eating. I did some research to find out WHY my plants had died when everything else in the garden seemed to be doing so well.

As I read articles on the subject, one thing caught my eye: Walnut Wilt. I had never heard of it before. Apparently, Black Walnut trees put out a chemical that is toxic to tomatoes and some other plants. It causes them to wilt from within and there's nothing you can do about it. Guess where I had planted my tomatoes? Yup. Close to the Black Walnut tree.

I was looking at my wilting tomato plants one night and I felt like the Holy Spirit showed me how this related to our lives. We may look good on the outside, like my big bushy plants did. Everyone thinks we are saved, everyone thinks we are doing good works for God. We can grow and start to bear fruit, yet have something hidden in our lives, a sin that eats away at us that no one knows about. We can try to hide it but eventually, it will show. We will start to "wilt." Our fruit that we were bearing, our good works, will be useless and rotten. Eventually, if we do nothing about this sin, it will be fatal. John 15:5-8 says: "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples." I find it interesting that the word "withered" is used. That's just what happened to my plants.

My fruit, the tomatoes are rotten, tiny and unusable. Christ says in Matthew 7:16-20 "You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them." The outer fruits reflected what was happening on the inside. We can't be living a secret life hiding sin or even continue on as an unbeliever and still do good works for Christ. The works will be rotten and useless and eventually, people will see that. If we don't repent and ask Christ to forgive us of our sins, it will be fatal.

So that's my lesson from the tomato plants. I have since planted more tomato plants, farther away from the Walnut trees. Hopefully, they will do well. It's incredible how God can take something that I would view as a failure and make an illustration out of it so I could learn more and grow in Him. Our God is an awesome God!