Lessons from the garden
By Wally Blackman
Faith columnist
As spring arrives, many people turn their attention to flower and vegetable gardens. I love to raise some of my food in gardens. I get it honest though. My Granddaddy loved to raise a garden and so did my Grandpa Tinsley. My Grandpa plowed with a mule named Pete on a terraced hill behind his house until he was ninety years old. Afterwards, he did smaller gardens, but loved to grow his own stuff. One day, I was walking with him around his house looking at all his plants full of garden goodies. He had beans, squash, cucumbers, and other vegetables, but it was his tomatoes that caught my attention. They were big enough to use, but much smaller than the tomatoes that I was growing. Also, they didn’t look as nice as most tomatoes in people’s gardens. He had what is usually called, heirloom plants.
I asked my Grandpa, “Why don’t you plant some of the newer kinds of tomatoes? They have all kinds of hybrids that grow larger, prettier tomatoes and are more resistant to various blights and diseases. Without hesitation, he said to me, “Son, those are no good. They don’t reproduce. I’ve planted from the seed I’ve saved each year for over forty years.” He didn’t just save tomato seed, but also the seed of his beans, squash and other vegetables.
It was at that moment a spiritual truth was given to me. Yes, I could plant every year from seeds that I bought and have bigger and better plants and vegetables. However, I didn’t raise the plants from whence the seeds came. However, if I raised plants that reproduced each year as the previous year, I would have my own seed and know what I was getting. The same was true spiritually. I could constantly seek to chase after whatever looked larger and seemed better, or I could focus on letting the Lord reproduce from me the fruit He desired in my life. In other words, I could either be a hybrid believer or an heirloom believer. Sadly, few believers are reproducing and are more focused on looking bigger and better to others. The reality is our Lord is looking for fruit from us. He is looking to see if we can reproduce, not look attractive. Do we want to be a hybrid believer or a reproducing one? Plant a life garden that reproduces another generation of believers who can in turn reproduce also.
