Miracle Tomatoes

These are the last three of the tomatoes that grew in our garden this summer.
We planted them last summer, after one of J’s coworkers had given us the starter plant. She said it was a variety she had a lot of success with. Of course she knew more than we did (most people do when it comes to gardening) so we planted them with high hopes.

Then all we got from our garden last summer was eggplant. I hinted at my disappointment on this blog. When I tore all the plants out of the garden this winter, I somehow decided to leave this one tomato plant.
Later, I went out to the garden one spring morning and unexpectedly saw about 10 big green tomatoes.

That week, I went to church later and asked the children in sharing time to draw a picture to finish the sentence, “I am grateful for the Savior because _____.” One child drew tomatoes. After the child described his drawing, I was able to truthfully respond that the Lord had given me tomatoes that week and I was grateful for them.

Walking away from the conversation I realized how amazing it was that I had been able to respond to this child in that way. My gift suddenly seemed much more important. Somehow it represented the love of God, the intricacies in which He performs His work, and His ability to take my token efforts (which is all that my garden really amounts to) and to turn them into something much better than I could produce on my own. I proudly showed off my tomatoes to everybody who came over.
I don’t think I’ve ever had tomatoes that tasted so good!