By Danny Minton

Not many people know that I am a farmer. Well, farmer may be a misnomer. However, I do have a small field I cultivate, fertilize, plant, and water every year. It amounts to around 16-18 square feet. My main crops are tomatoes and jalapeno peppers. However, the summers in West Texas are hot, and my crops don’t always produce as they should.

My first attempt at farming was when I was around 12 years old and planted a tomato plant by our house on 21^st Street in Plano. The plant grew and grew and grew but produced no fruit. I learned that they don’t do very well in shaded areas.

I’ve learned since then. My crop didn’t come in until early fall a few years ago, but it was full of peppers and green tomatoes. I picked the still-green tomatoes and made a batch of my mother’s and grandmother’s chow-chow that year. Last year, I switched to cherry tomatoes. I planted three plants, two of which couldn’t survive the record triple-digit days. The third survived and grew to cover the entire garden, producing over1,000 tomatoes. 

This year, I cut my fields down to about 12 square feet. Again, I planted peppers with tomatoes sprouting from last year’s seeds, but they evidently didn’t like the location and produced small, undernourished fruit. However, about 20 to 25 feet away, my wife noticed a tomato plant that had started to grow in one of the flower beds. It was one that I didn’t plant but started from fruit that had somehow made it to that area. I figured a squirrel or bird picked it up and dropped it. We left it there and kept it watered. The plant that was a product of former gardening has produced a couple of hundred tomatoes, with more to come.

As I thought about this scenario, it reminded me that that is how God works when we share the gospel. Sometimes, we see our efforts come to fruition as the gospel touches the hearts of people we try to reach. Other times, we may think that all our time and efforts are in vain and that we are seeing little results. But what we don’t realize is that when we share the word, results may come at a different time and place based on what we have planted in the hearts of people before. 

The tomatoes we are reaping this year are the results of work done in the garden last year. Maybe next year, it will spread next door, and my neighbor may have a crop of tomatoes he didn’t expect. 

As Christians, we are told to share Christ with the world. We may feel like what we are doing is all in vain. However, we never know how the words we plant will affect others in the future. Paul wrote that it takes several people to fulfill what God desires. 1 Corinthians 3:6-8 (NASB): “I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth.

American folklore relates the story of John Chapman, born in 1774. John owned an apple tree nursery in Allegheny Valley, Pennsylvania, in the late 1700s. One day, he started on a journey. With a bag of apple seeds, he began a walk that would take him from Pennsylvania to Iowa. Along the way, he would plant apple seeds and start apple tree nurseries in places where it might help settlers get a head start. He would then sell them to the settlers, helping them and him. Some say he was inspired by being taught the life of religion is to do good. You probably have heard of his other name, Johnny Appleseed.

Our task is to share Jesus with those around us and let God do the rest. As for my farming. Who knows? Maybe one day you’ll find a tomato plant in your backyard, one you didn’t plant but can reap the harvest. Better yet, one day, you may meet someone who has come to know Christ because someone watered the seed you planted.

Danny Minton is a former Elder and minister at Southern Hills Church of Christ