Delicious Little Tomatoes!
My husband loves to garden and he's diligent in caring for all the plants, especially the tomatoes in our yard. When we lived in Oregon he had amazingly large tomato plants that grew clear up to the eaves of our home. Since moving to Arizona, he has struggled year after year to grow a decent amount of tomatoes in spite of all the nurturing and fussing he applies to them. I jokingly say each tomato he gets is worth a $100.00 due to the time, fertilizer, and bug removal he does each year.
This year though, (I believe God has a sense of humor!), volunteer (ones that come up on their own, not planted by my husband) came up all over our front and back yards and produced numerous, delicious little tomatoes! The plants are producing so many tomatoes that our neighbors are likely peering through their blinds, not wanting to answer the doorbell, afraid my husband is bringing them even more tomatoes. We have an abundance this year!
The birds have also found the sweet, juicy fruit. Yesterday, while having coffee on the patio, a momma bird was trying to insert a tiny tomato into her squawking chick's mouth. She shoved it in and out it came onto the ground, the mother tried again four more times, and finally with a big gulp the fledgling bird got the small tomato down.
I imaged the dialogue between the two going something like this, Mama bird approaching Junior, "Here, eat this tomato." "No, I'm tired of tomatoes, that's all we've been eating," whined Junior as he spit out the offering. After the fourth attempt the Mama bird said, "Now, look here young man, I work my toes to the bone to provide you a little nourishment and you spit it out like an ungrateful fowl! You eat this or you will eat worms!" Then Junior finally conceded to her motherly gestures:)
This year though, (I believe God has a sense of humor!), volunteer (ones that come up on their own, not planted by my husband) came up all over our front and back yards and produced numerous, delicious little tomatoes! The plants are producing so many tomatoes that our neighbors are likely peering through their blinds, not wanting to answer the doorbell, afraid my husband is bringing them even more tomatoes. We have an abundance this year!
The birds have also found the sweet, juicy fruit. Yesterday, while having coffee on the patio, a momma bird was trying to insert a tiny tomato into her squawking chick's mouth. She shoved it in and out it came onto the ground, the mother tried again four more times, and finally with a big gulp the fledgling bird got the small tomato down.
I imaged the dialogue between the two going something like this, Mama bird approaching Junior, "Here, eat this tomato." "No, I'm tired of tomatoes, that's all we've been eating," whined Junior as he spit out the offering. After the fourth attempt the Mama bird said, "Now, look here young man, I work my toes to the bone to provide you a little nourishment and you spit it out like an ungrateful fowl! You eat this or you will eat worms!" Then Junior finally conceded to her motherly gestures:)
God is the Great Gardener. I hope one day we'll get to see what the Garden of Eden actually looked like before sin entered the scene. The fruit God provided for Adam and Eve was likely much sweeter and juicier than any fruit we have on this earth currently. We (and the birds) are enjoying the harvest of tomatoes that God provided for us this year and it is such a great reminder of how God desires to care for us, feed us, and protect us personally as His own children.
Matthew 6:26
Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns,
and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?
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