Tomatoes

Have you ever watched a tomato grow?

It's pretty fascinating.

Russ and I first bought three tomato plants from the farmer's market back in May. There were no blooms, no tomatoes. Hope of a single tomato was yet to be seen.

But ever so slowly, the yellow blooms appeared. Maybe it was the sunlight, the water, more soil, the transferring of plants to larger pots, placing the stakes. Perhaps we were doing something right!

I became hopeful. But soon the small yellow flowers began to wither. They appeared as though they had died so quickly. I almost wanted to prick them off the little branch, but since I barely knew a thing about plants, I had the inkling to let the shriveled up flowers just be for now.

So we continued to water, to monitor for growth. One morning before work, I carefully examined the dead blossoms. Lo and behold! The beginnings of a tomato!

Picture it with me. The shriveled up looking part was actually the bottom portion of a tomato. A tiny green tomato was already beginning to form. Imagine my happiness! It's as if I had a eureka moment in discovering what I thought was dead had come back to life. It was kind of a resurrection moment.

On the recent TEC retreat, a quote supposedly by St Ignatius (not sure if it was of Loyola or Antioch) goes "little deaths, little resurrections." In my eyes, he almost meant this quote to be for the tomatoes.

Over the past couple weeks, the tomatoes have grown larger and ripened into beautiful red tomatoes right before our eyes. Perhaps the growth of tomatoes could be a reflection of what happens when we attempt to cultivate our faith, just as we have tried cultivating our precious little tomato plants.