(Galatians 5:22–23, ESV)
There’s nothing like the sweet fruit of the Spirit – love, joy, peace, patience.
The wonderful thing about fruit is that it comes so freely—the byproduct of a healthy plant. We don’t manufacture love; it is an exotic from heaven. We don’t produce our own peace—it comes from Jesus, “not as this world gives.”
It’s all free! But cultivation of fruit is costly.
Those were my sister-in-law’s words at the beginning of summer. Katherine has a green thumb and a great garden. If I strategically happen by her house at the right time, I can usually mooch a few of her home grown ‘maters.
But I couldn’t forget her words: “there’s nothing like” it. She was right. Nothing like picking a tomato off the vine and making a BLT on a hot summer Saturday afternoon or a caprese salad for dinner or shaking off the morning dew and adding a tomato slice to a cheesy breakfast omelet.
If you have been so hapless to never have savored a North Carolina home grown tomato, well, I’ll pray for you. The tasteless, red orbs they sell in big box grocery stores shouldn’t be allowed to carry the name. They should just be labeled: “Tomato-like” or “Imitation Tomato.”
“There’s nothing like .. picking … your own….”
I couldn’t get Katherine’s words off my mind. And though it has been decades since I grew anything and my wife relegated me to a single spot where I would be allowed to plant anything, I decided to go for it! How hard could it be?
My sister-in-law gave me a couple tomato saplings and I carried them home on a velvet pillow. I dug up the flower bed (ruining some cherished tulip bulbs) and planted a Roma seedling and a Big Boy. I prayed over them, patted their heads, and gave them a drink before bedtime.
A few days later, I asked my wife to go by Lowe’s Home Improvement with me so I could purchase a couple tomato cages. While there, she saw some expensive flower arrangements we had to buy and I spotted an unbelievable sight: two-foot-high, maturing tomato plants for sale! One of them already had a few small green tomatoes on it.
“Look!” I cried to Anne, “I want those!”
“But, they’re $20,” she noted. “Besides, isn’t that cheating?”
“Who cares?!” I said. “There’s nothing like picking your own, vine-ripened tomato. I’m going to get two of them.”
So, I walked out with four cages, several pricey flowerpots, and $40 worth of half-grown tomato plants.
I uprooted the two earlier seedlings and replanted them to make room for the $20 plants, did a little weeding, and then realized that the two new plants were too big for the cages to be dropped on top of them. It took an hour of engineering to figure a way to first insert the cages and then lower the tomato plants into them.
I gave my new plantings more prayer, a good drink for all four, and a bedtime story.
Counting the cages and the half-grown plants, I had about $60 invested and 10-12 hours of acquiring, preparing soil, planting, store shopping, replanting, watering and praying. But, “there’s nothing like picking your own tomato off the vine….”
Every day, I watched and watered amidst a searing early North Carolina July drought. When we went to the mountains for vacation, I called in a favor from a neighbor. Because we shut the water off to the house for safety while away, I filled up three garbage cans with water and cut the top off a gallon milk jug that my neighbor could use as a water scooper.
I worried about them while I was away.
Upon our return, I was pleased to see that my plants were flowering and there were little green tomatoes emerging. I was so excited about them, I almost named the baby fruit. I wanted to bless them: “Sally, you’re going to grow into a beautiful red Roma. Bert, you’re going to be a hearty, Beefsteak….”
It was harder and more work than I thought it would be. But the 20 hours and $60 invested so far would be more than worth it when, soon, I would walk out to my own garden, pluck a tomato ripened on the vine, and slap a slice on top of a fresh salad.
I guess if something is savory enough, we’ll make significant lifestyle changes just for a taste of it.
Next week I’ll tell you everything you never wanted to know about blossom-end rot and green tomato hornworms.
After so many years of apprenticing with Jesus, I’ve come to understand how something utterly free (like spiritual fruit) can also come at great personal cost. Fruit is, by definition, a product of a healthy plant. But any gardener knows the fruit comes via costly cultivation.
More next time about the rhythms of life that foster spiritual fruit and the costs therein, but, for today, just remember “there’s nothing like picking your own tomato….”
Just remember, there’s nothing like living in the love of Christ. There’s nothing like abiding in the peace that passes understanding. There’s nothing like being strengthened by the very joy of Jesus.
Such sweet Holy Spirit fruit is worth all the digging, weeding, and watering that goes with it.
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