Tomato Plant Surprise

Last year was the first time I had planted a vegetable garden in years. Since we live on a wooded lot the challenge was greater and the outcome was in doubt. What a great surprise when the tomato plants reached six foot high in July and were covered with small tomatoes! (I use a system of square-foot gardening and stake vining plants.) That was the good news. The bad news was that I underestimated my success and only had four foot high stakes. It was no big deal until the storm came. I thought I was living in a scene from Little House on the Prairie. Wind, a heavy downpour, and hail wrecked havoc on my beautiful tomato plants, especially the tops that were hanging in limbo above their stakes.

After the storm subsided I slowly walked to the garden to survey the damage. Charles Ingles never felt so low when he walked into his fields with Little Laura after the locusts attacked. Fully a third of the plants were destroyed. My first response was despair and anger. Then I began the clean-up. The victims were relegated to the compost pile. The survivors were trimmed and retied.

A few days later I was telling a good friend of mine about the tragedy that had struck my life. He was genuinely sympathetic. In the process of the conversation, and with no judgment on his part, he happened to mention that his wife had been in an automobile accident while visiting her seriously ill mother in the hospital. He also alluded to some serious health problems he was having and the possibility that he could lose his job as the company he was working for was probably relocating. “Yea, but I lost a couple of dollars worth of tomato plants.”

Periodically, we need to have things put in perspective. Our “tomato plants” just aren’t that important when compared to real problems. It’s true that we all face trials but each of us can be thankful that the Lord never gives us more than we can handle.