Lessons From the Garden

I have a very small garden this year. I say ‘this year’ like last year was so prolifically huge. It wasn’t. I don’t think we even planted early enough last year to have anything bear fruit. Ha!! My garden this year actually only has three successful plants in it, if we’re judging success by fruit bearing, and not just growth.

But ‘measures of success’ is a different topic for another time. My garden is in a raised bed next to our shed, and not on the ground. Our dogs would dig it up in a hot second if we tried to plant a traditional garden.

I am a member of the group Buy Nothing for my neighborhood on facebook. This group allows people to list things they no longer need or want, in the hopes that someone else will find them a treasure, and pick them up. This is how I got all the producing tomato plants in the raised bed, and the pepper plant we put in a separate pot. Someone had grown them from seed, and then had too many, so they offered them to their neighbors. So nice!!

Well, these tomato plants grow a lot taller than I anticipated. Each of them is a different variety, and the tomatoes are different sizes, too. One plant has small, marble-like tomatoes. The second has small egg-shaped tomatoes that are variegated colors. And the third grows larger, Roma tomatoes.

I have never grown tomatoes before, so I didn’t know you are supposed to put cages around them to help support the fruit. (Yes, tomatoes are a fruit. Look it up.) Turns out that tomato plants will actually cause damage to themselves unless they are propped up by either a tomato cage that is made specifically for them, or tied to and supported by tall stakes.

The plant that makes Roma tomatoes actually grew three different ones on the same section of vine. By the time I noticed they were there, that vine had already folded over on itself. It was weak, and almost to the point of being broken. I thought for sure the tomatoes would never ripen.

But that made me look at the other plants. While they were producing fruit, they were wildly splaying out all over the place. The fruit was dragging the vines down, and cause them to bow. If I hadn’t noticed, they would have broken like the other plant.

So I got three old closet bars from the garage and shoved them in the raised bed next to the plants, and gently and loosely tied up their vines so the fruit could be supported. The garden looks so much tidier for one thing, but even more importantly, the plants are healthy. The plant that I had to remove the broken vine from is flowering again- which means more fruit is coming soon.

I find this to be a picture of myself, and more broadly, the church. You see, we need each other. Once we are a child of God we can grow on our own, yes, but eventually without a fellowship of believers to support us, our vines can splay out wildly all over the place.

We can get led down paths of doctrine that are incorrect. We can have a wrong view of the world. We can become complacent with things God calls us out on. I need the body of Christ to help steer me and rebuke me (in love of course!), and encourage my growth in supported ways.

Sure we can even flower and produce fruit while growing wildly on our own, but eventually the weight of it is going to hurt us, and our fruit. We’re going to get pulled down and broken because we don’t have support. Fruit that grows along the ground is much more susceptible to bugs, fungus, and bacteria. We need the support of a church body to help us bear the weight of fruit, and help keep it healthy.

But this support can’t be too tight. You still have to leave the vines room to grow. Even though the plant is tied to the support, it is done so loosely. If I took my twine and tied the plants so that each vine was tight against the support post, they would never grow. They wouldn’t be able to move or breathe, and they would never produce fruit.

So it is with our local church body. Yes, we need support of others, but not to the point of anyone lording over anyone else, and holding the reins of others too tightly. We need to give people room to grow, and not suffocate them along the way.

Hebrews 10:24-25
(24) And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works:
(25) Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.

Romans 12:3-5
(3) For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.
(4) For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office:
(5) So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.

Proverbs 27:17
Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.

Isn’t God’s creation so neat? I learn a lot of lessons from being in my garden, and I’m not even that good at it! Maybe next year we’ll actually plant the seeds we bought. And that’s a whole ‘nother topic for another day, too.