I love this time of year: it’s hot, but that’s when the fresh vegetables and my favorite fruits start coming in. Our garden has had mixed results: the beefsteak tomatoes are huge, but the Celebrity variety never took off. The bell peppers are happy, but the squash has been anemic. The okra looks healthy, but the butterbeans are scanty. The green beans have grown so much that they’re pulling down the puny corn stalks we expected them to climb.
As usual, the peppers are huge and the tomatoes are beginning to ripen in earnest just as I take off for the Baptist World Alliance meeting. This year it’s being held in Izmir, Turkey, which should be every bit as hot as the Carolinas. Fortunately, we have neighbors who can enjoy the bounty.
In the meantime, we’ve made jam from blackberries and plums (separately). The freezer is stocked with blueberries and sliced bell peppers. We’ve eaten a handful of butterbeans, a few helpings of squash, a little fried okra, and every tomato that came close to being ripe — plus some that were fried green.
Psalm 1 speaks of a foolish person who hangs out with the wicked and ends up spiritually dry, while those who delight in God’s teaching are “like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season.” In sermons on that text, I’ve often remarked that those who trust in the Psalmist’s sinners and scoffers produce no more fruit than dry weather corn.
The next time I use that text, I’ll have a picture to illustrate.