Bananas and Tomatoes

Just before the frost last fall, I went out to our garden. The tomato plants were on their last legs, but there were still many green tomatoes hanging on the vines.

One by one, I picked them and then brought them inside. I knew that the next day everyone of the plants would be dead.

I looked at the green tomatoes when I got them inside. There was not a trace of color on them anywhere. Still, there are a number of ways to ripen, even the greenest of tomatoes.

I carefully placed the tomatoes in a container and then, I placed two bananas with them. Over the next couple of weeks, I replaced the bananas once, while the tomatoes ripened.

You see, for tomatoes to ripen effectively, they require ethylene gas. Tomatoes themselves release some of this, but bananas release quite a bit more. Without this gas, they will remain green and generally unfriendly to the various dishes which call for ripe tomatoes.

Bananas release plenty of ethylene gas so that as they ripen, they spur tomatoes on as well. This is something peculiar to bananas. Put three or four kiwi fruits in with the tomatoes and you'll just have a mess on your hands in a couple of weeks.

It takes a special person to help others on to spiritual maturity. As I read through the New Testament, it seems that Barnabas, the son of consolation, was just such a person.

Barnabas nurtured Paul in the beginning, accepting him and accompanying him on his early missionary journey. It was he as well, who spent time with John Mark strengthening that young disciple in his faith.

It is easy to stand back and watch others stand or fall on their own, but God has called us to do more. We must be encouragers, lifters of burdens. We must help others on to spiritual maturity, just as bananas encourage tomatoes to greater redness.