| There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every delight under heaven— |
| Ecclesiastes 3:1 |
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Buckets and Basketsful
When I was teaching full-time I had time to plant and tend a garden over the summer, but when the tomatoes began ripening at summer's end, I was always too busy and too tired to do anything with them. I'd come home spent, run out to the garden to grab a few tomatoes for fresh eating, then watch sadly as the rest of them, the majority, rotted on the vine. After much prayer, I decided to turn down the teaching contract I was offered for the 2019-2020 academic year. In addition to reducing stress and having more time for family and my own creative work, I hoped this decision would allow me time to harvest and preserve the tomatoes I'd grown. It has!
So far, from fifteen plants, I've canned dozens of quarts and pints of tomatoes, tomato juice, tomato sauce, and salsa, and have been able to give many tomatoes away to family, friends and neighbors. And the tomatoes are still coming in buckets and basketsful! I give credit to the healthy starts I bought at Hamilton's Greenhouse, and to the Lord of the harvest for blessing those plants with everything they needed to grow and thrive here.
You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. John 14: 4
May he give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed. Psalm 20:4
Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. Psalm 37:4
Wait. What? Even if you're asking for something as inconsequential as tomatoes and the time to preserve them? Yes! Sometimes we think of God as only caring about the "big" things, but nothing is too trivial for a great God to care about. Not even tomatoes.
On the first day of this fall's academic year, Monday, August 19th, the day I would have been on campus most of the day and come home too wiped out to do anything in the garden, we harvested our first big batch of ripe tomatoes�"about two bushel basketsful of the reddest, juiciest, most flavorful homegrown tomatoes we've ever been blessed to grow in the twenty-plus years we've gardened here.
Why would God give me confirmation that I'd made the right decision by answering my prayer about tomatoes on the first day of classes? Because sometimes you just need to see the answers in overflowing baskets and bucketsful. Sometimes you need to be able to turn the smooth, round red answers over and over in your hands. Sometimes you need to see jars full of the answers shining like jewels on the shelves of your pantry. Sometimes you need thick, flavorful slices of the answer on your sandwiches or chopped on your tacos so you can physically "taste and see that the Lord is good." Thank you, Lord. These answers are delicious!Daye Phillippo
September 2019