We Were Created to Live and Produce Fruit Right-Side Up

I enjoy gardening.  There is something therapeutic about working in the soil and tending to plants.  Watching a little seed sprout, then become a full-sized plant, and eventually producing something that I can enjoy eating.  This year, I decided that I would start a garden, as it has been a long time since I last had one.

I planned the spot in our yard to put a raised bed garden, determined the bed frame, and made plans of what to plant.  I started the seeds in the house, then moved them to the garage with a grow light.  Eventually, it was time to move them outside.  Unfortunately, I’ve had some delays in getting my garden bed set up this spring.

As the plants were growing, I kept repotting them into bigger pots thinking that I’ll get the garden bed ready soon, and then they’ll be able to thrive.  Yet, with further delays, I needed to do something to keep them alive and growing until that time.

Tomato Stands

My father-in-law had a couple of tomato stands that were hanging around unused.  As I looked at my growing tomato plants, knowing I needed to get them into something bigger, I asked if I could borrow those stands for this year.  With the promise of sharing the crop, I got the stands, added soil and planted my tomato plants … upside-down.

Yes, these stands for tomatoes have them growing upside-down.  Nope, I’ve never grown any of my plants upside-down before.  Apparently, this is common, and from what I’ve read online, it works.

Time will tell just how much fruit these plants produce, though I have to admit I’m a bit sceptical.  While I planted some of my tomato plants in these upside-down planters, I have others that I’ve kept moving into bigger pots (currently they’re in 5 gallon buckets) with the expectation that I’ll get them into the garden bed before summer.

Each plant has the same soil, same water, same fertilizer, and the same sunlight.  The only difference is that some are upside-down and others are right-side up.  Yet, there is a substantial difference in the apparent health of each plant.

The upside-down plants, while still alive and growing, are significantly smaller and less healthy looking than the right-side up plants.  This got me thinking about us humans.  When we are planted in life with the correct orientation, we will grow better and produce more good fruit.

Created to Live Right-Side Up

When God created mankind, He had a plan for how we were to live.  He put Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden with good soil, sufficient water and nutrients, and the proper amount of sunlight – or should I say “Son-light”.  They walked daily with the Lord.  

Then, along came the serpent with deception and a counterfeit plan.  After falling for the lie and being cast out of the Garden of Eden, man’s world was turned upside-down.  We are no longer planted in the manner in which God designed us to grow best.

The soil became hard, and it became a struggle to produce crops.  Life is hard with pain and disease.  We have to work at walking with the Lord in an intimate relationship.  The fruit of our life is stunted and hindered by our upside-down position.

We tend to look at the ways of man as normal and call God’s Kingdom upside-down.  I disagree.  I believe that the ways of God’s Kingdom are right-side up and the ways of man are upside-down.  Jesus came teaching about the Kingdom of God, and people thought He was crazy.  When we live our lives in accordance with Jesus’ teaching, such as making other people more important than ourselves, or valuing anything more than money, or believing in faith that God can do things through us that are humanly impossible, people call us crazy, too.  Maybe, we’re just living the best we can reoriented to the right-side up position as beloved children of God Most High.

The Fruit Will Tell

Jesus said that we can know a false prophet compared to a true disciple by their fruit (see Matthew 7:15-20).  He then was specific in what kind of fruit we should see in one of His disciples when He said in John 13:35, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Disciples are fully devoted followers of their teacher.  They leave their families, and the life that they had before, to learn everything they can from the master.  Then, they live out what they have learned in the manner that they were taught.

Disciples of Christ should be different from the people of the world as our lifestyle should look like Christ.  We should live all of our life in the manners and ways of Jesus.  Anybody looking at one of Jesus’ disciples should be able to say, “There’s something different about them.”  The fruit of our life should be healthy and abundant, bringing glory to God.

People, whether followers of Christ or not, do some good things in life.  There are positive fruits produced even from human ambition and strength.  We see some good fruit coming out of ministries and programs that are oriented in the ways of man with a bit of God mixed in.  But I have to wonder, would there be even more, and better, fruit if they were completely oriented in the ways of God?

What about you?  Are you planted upside-down, living life in the ways of man, or are you living the best you know how in the ways of God?  What fruit do others see in your life that would tell them that you are Jesus’ disciple?