We have a modest garden. There is a row of okra, a few pepper plants, and a sizable patch of cucumbers, cantaloupe, and watermelon. I also have 3 blackberry bushes, a blueberry bush, and 2 tomato plants.
We have been getting alot of rain lately and this afternoon I noticed that my tomato plant had taken a beating. It was still standing, but it looked worse off for the wear, if you will. It's limbs were all willy-nilly, looking quite disheveled. On this tomato plant are several unripe cherry tomatoes. These tomatoes rely on it's host plant to be healthy and strong to be able to take care of them so that they can grow into beautiful, delicious fruit. I couldn't just stand by and leave this plant to fend for herself. I feared that she may not recover from the storm she had endured. So, I got a stake and lifted her branches, ever so gently as to not break any. I gave her just the right amount of help so that she can take care of those tomatoes growing on the vine. It didn't take much effort or time from me.
We are alot like that tomato plant at times. We all suffer storms in our lives that can wreak havoc and threaten to bring us down to a place where we find it too difficult to take care of our "tomatoes on the vine". If we're lucky, a friend will step in, stake us up so that we can arise from near doom. If we're luckier, we are that friend to someone else.
Just remember, some times it doesn't take very much effort or time to lift a friend from a dark, lonely place that they cannot climb out of on their own. Count it a privilege to be there for others. You never know how many tomatoes will ripen because you cared enough to lend a hand to someone who didn't have the strength to help themselves up after being knocked down by a hard rain.
"Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord" (1 Corinthians 15:58).
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