Lessons from a Tomato Plant

My friend Ashlyn Ohm is a fellow Arkansas writer who writes devotional blogs on God and nature at Words from the Wilderness. She has also published a devotional book, three novels, and a poetry book. I will admit as an academic writer, Ashlyn is better at the devotional genre than I am. Recently the Lord laid a devotional on my heart, and I decided to give it a try writing my first devotional on God and nature. Thank you Ashlyn for the inspiration for giving this genre a try!

We don’t have a ton of gardening space at our home since we’re right in the heart of the city. However, we have a handful of raised beds and a few containers, and each year, we try to grow a small vegetable garden to give us and our neighbors some fresh produce. In past years, we had a decent amount of produce from it. Recent summers haven’t been kind to our vegetable gardens with overall limited output due to the scorching-high temperatures and little rain to oppress Arkansas over the past few summer.

However, this year, while most of our gardens had little to show, we had one miracle from the Lord as a result of this year’s garden: an abundant tomato plant.

We had one tomato plant (an Arkansas Traveler) continually produce an abundance of crop throughout the summer, even when most of our garden died away. It continued to produce throughout the fall, and it even produced a wealth of tomatoes shortly before our first deep-freeze fell over the Natural State before the plant started to die. Our neighbors were astounded that we continued to have fresh tomatoes even late into the fall and into the early winter, and we thanked the Lord for the blessing He bestowed upon us!

As I pondered over the abundance of fruit the tomato plant produced for us up until its life began to end, I asked myself if when my time on earth nears the end, can I look back on my life and see a life that was as spiritually fruitful and abundant for the Lord as this tomato plant was in producing physical fruit? I am still amazed at the stamina of our tomato plant in producing its bountiful harvest. It had to endure an overall hot and dry summer (although we watered it as much as we could, at there were times it still received rain), a windy fall, and it kept on producing up until the near end of its life in the freezing cold winter weather. What were some lessons I could learn from this tomato plant to apply in my own life to increase my spiritual stamina and produce more spiritual fruit for the Lord?

First of all, this tomato plant was deeply rooted in fertile soil. It was able to draw rich nutrients from the soil to supply the vitality it needed to produce abundant fruit. Likewise, we need our own hearts to be deeply rooted in the fertile soil that is receptive to the hearing of the Word of God, the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and sound biblical teaching from those the Lord has blessed us with. Our hears need to be like the good ground found in Matthew 13:8 so that we can bear an abundance of spiritual fruit for the Lord.

Second of all, this tomato plant received light from the sun and nourishment from the rain. Without sun, the plant would have never grown but remained a seedling. Without rain, the plant would have dried up and not been able to draw its nourishment from the soil, no matter how fertile the soil was. Likewise, we need to to receive light from our Light of the World, Jesus (John 8:12) and we need to remain connected to God the Son, Jesus. Jesus said in John 10:10 that He came to give life abundantly.We also need to daily read Scripture, God’s instruction manual on life, and absorb the rich nutrients of His Word that provides spiritual nourishment and vitality for us. Ephesians 5:26 even uses the metaphor of water to describe God’s Word. Like the tomato plant needing sun and rain, we need the Jesus, the Son of God, and the pure water of God’s Word in Scripture, to nourish us to spiritual maturity.

Lastly, the branches of the tomato plant produced an abundance of fruit because they were connected to were abiding in the vine of the tomato plant. Each branch didn’t need to struggle on its own to produce any fruit. It simply needed to abide in the vine to receive everything it needed from the vine in order to produce an abundance of delicious tomatoes. Likewise, if we want to produce an abundance of spiritual fruit in our own lives, we need to take John 15 to heart and abide in our Vine, Jesus Christ.

I’ll admit abiding in Christ is one of the hardest lessons I have trouble following in my own life. I’ve read the first chapter of They Found the Secret, Secrets of the Vine, and John 15 more times than I can count, but I still struggle with simply abiding in Christ. I’m the type of person that when issues in life happens, I’m the take-charge, want-to-resolve life’s problems kind of person. I like to face my challenges head-on, get through them as quickly as possible, and move on to better things. However, sometimes life throws problems our ways that we cannot directly overcome. We exhaust all our options, and like the woman in Mark 5:25-34 with the issue of blood who had nowhere to turn but Jesus, sometimes all we can do is stop trying to strive and struggle and simply abide in Christ. When we do, we are right where Christ wants us to be, so He can be our everything, our spiritual nourishment, our Vine, and through Him, we can produce an abundance of spiritual fruit.

Sometimes our Heavenly Father, our Vinedresser, has to come along and prune away some of the cares of the world that take our attention off of Him and onto other things, and when He does, it can be painful. However, if we will allow the Lord to prune us and care for us, and if we will truly surrender our lives to abiding in the Vine of Christ, we can, produce much spiritual fruit for the Lord.

As I look back and ponder over our tomato plant, I am first of all thankful for the physical blessing the Lord gave us this year with a bountiful harvest of delicious vine-ripe tomatoes. He gave us such an abundance that we were able to share them with our family and neighbors. More than that, I am also thankful for the lessons the Lord laid on my heart that I could learn from the tomato plant. Lessons that will help me slow down and abide in Christ more, spend more time in His Word and in increasing my spiritual vitality by being connected to the Son, preparing my heart to be more receptive of hearing from the Lord and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and ultimately, to produce as much spiritual fruit for the Lord as our tomato plant produced a harvest.