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Ornamental Tomato Plants? Perhaps you have never heard of "ornamental tomato plants" but I have some. You may be more familiar with ornamental pear trees, but these are tomato plants that I have watered over the whole summer. I kept expecting to see small tomatoes form on the vines, but they failed to appear. Don't ask me why I kept watering these lousy tomato plants, but I did. Perhaps it was due to my stubbornness; I did not want to give up on them. It may have been due to their beauty. I never thought of tomato plants as being pretty, but they are green, and they do have these yellow flowers that appear for a little while. Actually, most of these plants were in pots and I decided to plant three of them in front of the house. Why not share their beauty with the rest of the world? I kept on watering and fertilizing them and had just about given up on them. In fact, one morning I had decided to pull up those plants and put something else in their place. But I saw a few small tomatoes on the plants and they are now loaded with tomatoes. It may still be too late in the fall to get ripe tomatoes, but I am willing to show some patience and see what happens. Those other plants that are still in the pots have not done a thing. Well, one plant has one tomato on it. This morning I decided to uproot one plant and scatter the dirt on my yard. You see I just lost patience with those ornamental tomato plants. I will probably destroy the rest of those plants and scatter the dirt. The Bible speaks of plants that bear fruit and those that do not bear fruit. "Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire" (Luke 3.9). "Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes that it may bear more fruit" (John 15.2). However, there is another passage that also interests me on this subject. He also spoke this parable: "A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. "Then he said to the keeper of his vineyard, 'Look, for three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none. Cut it down; why does it use up the ground?' "But he answered and said to him, 'Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it. 'And if it bears fruit, well. But if not, after that you can cut it down.'" (Luke 13.6-9). There are a number of important lessons in this passage. One is the lesson of patience. The master did not just have the fig tree cut down, but he gave it more time and nutrition. Some people are like that, they just need more time. I will admit to lacking patience when it comes to certain matters, but we need to not give up on people while there is still time. There is the lesson of not just time but nutrition. If we are going to bear fruit, we have to be filled with the word of God. We will not grow if we are not desiring the pure milk of the word, 1 Peter 2.2. By being filled with the Spirit, I am not talking about some mysterious working of the Holy Spirit, but I am talking about living by God's word. This is the way Paul is using it in Galatians 5: "Walk in the Spirit" verse 16, "But if you are led by the Spirit" verse 18, "If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit" verse 25. God's word will cause us to grow if we take it in. Finally, there is the point about a final judgment. There will be a time when the fig tree will be cut down if it does not bear fruit. Even the Master's patience has it boundaries. Thus, it is for God and us. Let us not assume that God's patience is endless. The Nation of Israel kept on trying God's patience as they rejected prophet after prophet. Eventually God had enough and first sent the Assyrians to conquer Israel and then sent the Babylonians to destroy Judah and Jerusalem. One day we will face God in judgment and He will look at our fruit. Christians, like tomato plants, are not to be ornamental. We are to be productive members of Christ. I don't know whether those tomatoes will have enough time to ripen before it comes a frost, but it will be close. --Dennis Tucker
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