Gospel Tomatoes

“And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward:”

Isaiah 37:31

Garden Theology

The resiliancy of the fragile tomato impressed me as I pruned and picked through my small vegetable garden. The tomato is a favorite target of all: bugs, disease, weather, and varmits of all size. (Two AND four legged ones, I might add!) In years like this where rain has been light and the heat has weighed heavy, I held out little hope for the little green berries to last until ripe. But they delighted me with more than taste; they taught a lesson as only a plant could.

I cannot speak with absolute authority over the vast variety of tomato species, and of those in my backyard… well, I got the seeds from my neighbour. They are some sort of cherry tomato, and when they are fully ripe they explode with sweetness that would make a Coke taste bitter. They are the perfect reward to reinvigorate a tired gardner.

The branches of these are almost like vines, they walk along the ground, or over the trellis, even over some of my bushier tomato plants. The skin of the branches is not hairy, and the leaves are velvety and soft. The pale yellow flowers burst open quickly, cupping their precious contents skyward. They are light as a feather, but support the little honeybees though they tremble at the slightest breeze.

Can you not see them? The first step of the scientist, the artist, and the philosopher are the same: to look at what is made. You may have just walked by this fraught little plot, if I hadn’t caught your attention.

The flowers soon give way in neat little collars to the roundish fruit that soon blushes into full flavor. As the green orbs swell with nutrients, they begin to burden down the thin vine that easily held the flowers. As they mature, the vine droops. The fruit causes the vine to twist.

But will it break? Is the twisting meant to destroy? Rather the opposite. As the fruit bows the branch downward, the leaves from the other side of the branch are pulled upward into the sun. The leafy limb then is able to shade the fruit from the intense rays of sunlight. Then the reddening begins, and the picker finds the tomatoes unscorched, sweetened, even cool to the touch, even in the middle of summer.

The Lord said Israel would “bear fruit upward.” Paul said to the Colossians, “whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord.” The Levites under the law were instructed in certain sacrifices to offer as “an heave offering” and “a wave offering”. The fruit of all labour should be offered up to Godward.

These humble tomato plants do not stand out in the plant kingdom for majesty or size. But one thing it does: the fruit is always on the upward side of the branch. While it appears that that would break or render the fruit helpless to the elements- the offering upward ensures the safety of the fruit, by a unique humbling and exalting process that only a Creative God could invent.

Believer, does God know what He is asking of you? He ordered all the blessings of your life to be presented to Him first. Money, time, service, study, attention, allegiance… it seems foolish to expose these gifts. The sacrifice can be too much to bear- yet that is exactly what the Lord Jesus expects and desires to happen. What is it the children sing?

The blessings will come down as the prayers go up!

Give up when you can’t give more. Let God know that He is entitled to what you produce. Naturally, then, you will preserve every bit of what He has bestowed upon you.

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