#207 Clearly Mislabeled

This spring, we decided to uproot our perennial garden and replace it with a vegetable garden. Because there ain't a thing more scrumptious than a homegrown tomato, we planted four of them. Not four tomatoes... four tomato plants. Our mouths have been watering as we've anticipated the late August harvest of those beauties.

My man and I are not seasoned gardeners. In other words, we're part of the group known as "the-growing-our- own- food challenged."  We didn't do too badly with the Romaine lettuce. We got a small, but good crop, and have just a little left over for one more salad. Now we're watching cucumber plants spreading on the ground, green beans that are getting big enough to pull, and small buds of sweet peppers and strawberries starting to appear.

But it's those tomatoes that have had us stumped. The plants just keep getting bigger and bigger, and there are literally a hundred small tomatoes on those branches. We've been wondering how they will ever grow when they're so close to one another. Picture us. Dumb and Dumber, standing with our mouths agape, wowing at all the tiny tomatoes that we just know will turn into big ole ones any day now. I have already been planning to have a tomato sale on my front lawn, because we will never be able to eat them all. 

Those plants have been expanding. I mean they have been growing up AND out. These greens were taking over the rest of the garden. 

 

The label on the plants that we bought in May said, "Early Girl Tomato".

This is a picture of a full size "Early Girl":

This morning I knelt down and took a good look on the inside of all that foliage and this is what I found:

No "Early Girls" here! These were cherry tomatoes! Those four plants had been clearly mislabeled.

The moral of the story is....

No matter how badly I want those cherry tomatoes to be full sized, succulent, "Early Girl" beauties, they never will be, because that is not what they were created to be. They may have a sign on them that says, "Early Girl", but they were "cherry tomatoes" that someone put the wrong label on. They have been, they are, and they will forever be, what they were created to be.

Maybe someone has mislabeled you and called you by the wrong name. They have unrealistic expectations of who they would like you to be. They put the wrong label on you because of things that you have done in the past. They give you another name because of the circumstances that you find yourself in. 

They call you by that name to your face. They whisper it behind your back.

The good news is, no matter how badly they want you to be the person they expect you to be, and no matter how badly they want their labels to define you, you will never be those things because that is not who God created you to be.

You have been, you are, and you will forever be loved, chosen, valued, and highly esteemed in the eyes of your Heavenly Father.

You have been, you are, and you will forever be forgiven, free, changed, and redeemed by your Savior.

You have been, you are, and you will forever be beautiful, precious,  beloved,  and cherished by God.

You are His darling, His dearest, His pet, and His treasure.

You are worth a King's ransom. You are worth your weight in the precious blood of God's own Son.

You have been clearly mislabeled!

 

I'm linking at