Hello,
Are tomatoes a reminder of God’s grace?
For me, this year, they are. My wife is our family gardener, and this spring as she planted the garden she planted a bunch of tomato plants. The exact number, I do not know. All I know is that now that the tomatoes are ripening, we have tomatoes coming out of our ears. Don’t get me wrong. I like tomatoes, fresh now, and stewed in the winter. But it seems like we have been hit with a Tsunami of tomatoes.
Given the harvest, I am led to wonder, “How many tomato plants would have been enough?” And therein lies the connection with the grace of God.
When Jewish folks gather for the Passover meal, part of the culinary telling of the ancient story of the release of the Israelites from the Pharaoh’s torturous reign is a song entitled, “Da Da Yea Nu” (phonetic spelling of the Hebrew). Translated into English; “It Would Have Been Enough”. When they get to this point in the meal, one person starts by listing just some of the wonders of God’s grace that he had bestowed on his people leading up to the Exodus, the release from the Pharaoh. Paraphrasing the song,(I don’t remember the exact listing) it goes something like this:
Leader: It would have been enough if God, in his gracious mercy had created all things and ordered them to live in peaceful order.
Gathered: “Da da yea nu. Da da yea nu. Da da yea nu. Da yae nu, da yea nu.”
Leader:: It would have been enough if God, in his gracious mercy, would have raised up a people from aged Abraham and Sarah.
Gathered: “Da da yea nu. Da da yea nu. Da da yea nu. Da yae nu, da yea nu.”
Leader: It would have been enough if God, in his gracious mercy, would have led them to a land full of milk and honey.
Gathered: “Da da yea nu. Da da yea nu. Da da yea nu. Da yae nu, da yea nu.”
Leader: It would have been enough if God, in his gracious mercy, would have cared for his people by providing food for them in Egypt while there was a famine in their land.
Gathered: “Da da yea nu. Da da yea nu. Da da yea nu. Da yae nu, da yea nu.”
Leader: It would have been enough if God, in his gracious mercy, would have provided homes for his people as they lived in Egypt.
Gathered: “Da da yea nu. Da da yea nu. Da da yea nu. Da yae nu, da yea nu.”
Leader: It would have been enough it God, in his gracious mercy, would have raised up a great leader, like Moses, to guide his people.
Gathered: “Da da yea nu. Da da yea nu. Da da yea nu. Da yae nu, da yea nu.”
Leader: But God, in his gracious mercy, rescued us from the tyranny of the Pharoah, and fed and led us in the wilderness.
But that is the way it is with God and God’s dispensing of his grace. From the very beginning of God’s story with God’s people, God has been unbelievably generous with his grace. Just when it seems like the grace that God has given would have been enough…..God gives more….even to the point of giving of his Son so that he might eternally claim us for his own.
Like an overwhelming harvest of tomatoes, God continues to overwhelm us with his grace….grace coming out of our ears! I don’t know how many tomato plants would have been enough, but God has shown that when it comes to filling our lives with his grace…..to God, it is never enough!
Have a great week living in the overwhelming crop of God’s grace.
God’s grace and peace, (ggap)
Pastor Jerry Nuernberger
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