Tomatoes Anyone?

My first batch of tomatoes was gently and thoughtfully transformed into irresistible pizza sauce-made fresh for my loves- than canned to experience later in the bleak of winter.

My second batch was planned to maybe spaghetti sauce and as the garden my third batch will likely be ketchup....

Well, this year was a great year for our tomatoes (despite the stink bug)! We have an abundance. I mean so many that when people come into the house they are certain to comment on the amount of tomatoes on the window sill, around the sink, on the counter, in the frig.... everywhere.  Some might say that we were rich in tomatoes, I guess we are (if only we could pay for gas with tomatoes).

This got me thinking.  It reminded me of a recent read. Mark Buchanan came up with a simple exercise to shift our thinking in the book Spiritual Rhythm.

We've tended toward scarcity thinking, ever since the fall (as in the original rebellion).  Indeed, the serpent incited humankind's rebellion by stirring up a crisis around the threat of scarcity.  He distracted Adam and Eve from the abundance God provided and got them pinning for the one thing God withheld. "You haven't got enough", was his opening ploy.  It's worked pretty well for him since.

Have you got enough? Or asked another way, how rich are you? Take stock of your abundance.  List the obvious things-clothes to wear, a place to live, a chair to sit, friends or family to have meals with, meals themselves.

But then move on to those things you rarely stop to appreciate

-air                                                                   -     

-water

-bumblebees (hard at work pollinating my tomato plants)

 -hands and feet  

-eyes and ears

 -the sound of rain  

 -a Bible verse that's been a lifelong companion 

-a grandfather who taught you how the tie a knot 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            You get the idea.  A list like that can get very long.  It can get so long it can almost make you forget there's anything missing.

Then he said to them, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kind of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions" Luke 12:15