This morning I strolled around my garden checking on how my vegetables are growing. And I saw my first small tomatoes forming. How exciting! I have been tilling and fertilizing and weeding and tying them to stakes and spraying for bugs and doing all the things that the plants require in order to produce the juicy red fruits.
But I’m also reminded that it’s not by my labor that the tomatoes grow. A few months ago, I held a tiny tomato seed in my hand. And no matter how hard I stared at it, or squeezed it, or encouraged it, or threatened it, or anything, I could never make it grow. I could never give it life. God alone has that power and authority.
“And God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” And it was so.” (Gen 1:11)
My tomato plants are following God’s Word. They are growing because God told them to. They are producing more seeds because God told them to.
Which leads me to think, am I as faithful as a tomato plant? Do I follow God’s word and do what I am made to do? Am I producing a harvest for God? I’m probably being outdone by a small green plant.
Next time you see a garden, remember that those plants are doing what God told them to do. And ask yourself, are you doing the same?