The Foolishness of Love for Tomato Plants and Sparrows

Life, in every form, seems to draw out the sincerest sympathies in us.  Life, by that I am referring to the essence of being alive, is seen as wholly natural and right whereas dying, the fact of the ultimate fate of all things that are blessed enough to be alive, is seen as wholly unnatural to the point of being mean.  To explain this let me share a brief story.  As part of the quarantine, I have begun to raise tomatoes.  I first germinate the seeds, heirloom, in a wet cloth hung on a window.  I watch them closely day by day hopefully seeking the small white thread of root, no bigger than thread and ultimately more fragile, before carefully removing them, gently placing them in soil, adding a few drops of water and placing them in a warm place in the sun.  Then for the next few days, I closely monitor them, their lives clinging precariously between life and death, willing them to live to the point of prayer.  I am 2 for 5.  And this is the point.  When one dies I often go and look at it, its tiny stem, an inch or less topped with two leaves laying shriveled atop the soil until it finally disappears into soil itself—and I grieve.  I am not overwhelmed by grief nor weep or cry or despair at the loss—but I do grieve.  This story may sound foolish to many but it must be understood in the context of what might seem even greater foolishness, “What is the price of two sparrows—one copper coin? But not a single sparrow can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it.” Matthew 10:29  What then—If God, God Almighty, is aware of every sparrow’s death, the leap of mine to a tomato plant is infinitesimally smaller.  And therein lies the point, or better stated, the miracle, the grace of the knowledge of the sanctity of life is a gift from God and is, by grace, a growing love, which like life is meant never to die but to be an ever-present growing, integral part of being truly alive. Lean living!!!  

One that didn't make it.  It just dawned on me that I am doing
all of this in my studio which is a statement of truth in itself.