​ Pastor Mary’s Meditation for Friday, Sept 25: Tomatoes
When we think of fruits, we think of sweet tasting foods like oranges and strawberries. But, most vegetables are fruits also.  This next week our daily meditations are on vegetables that we use in the kitchen – these are also technically considered fruits. A fruit is the container for seeds which helps with seed dispersal.  When a plant has a fruit that is bright colored and juicy, you can know that it has seeds that are adapted to be dispersed by animals. For survival, a plant needs to have its seeds widely dispersed away from the parent plant. Genesis 1:29 says,  “And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food.”  Food with seeds indeed is what we enjoy (and are dependent upon). Today we will look at the tomato. And, if you are like me, my tomatoes are ripening on the vines in my garden right now!  And, what a delight it is to go out and pick them right before I prepare dinner. Tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum) are red and juicy when ripe, and have small seeds in their nutritious tissue.  When you eat a tomato in the wild and spit out the seeds, you are planting a tomato plant. A tomato is 95% water, contains 4% carbohydrates and less than 1% each of fat and protein (table). In a 100 gram amount, raw tomatoes supply 18 calories and are a moderate source of vitamin C. Don’t eat a bunch of the leaves or raw fruit, as they contain toxins.  One source says that if you dream about tomatoes it symbolizes that you will have happiness, good health, and harmony. Think about what a gift tomatoes are: we eat them in salads and spaghetti, in pizza and pasta, in hamburgers and hash. Also, were supposed to keep our tomatoes out of the refrigerator as they lose some of their delicious flavor if we do. Hmmm…reminds us not to put our faith in the refrigerator either. If we don’t share about the importance of God in our lives (i.e., put it away in the cold), then others will be deprived of the fragrance of God.  2 Corinthians 2:15 says, “For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.”