This was a crazy year for my tomato plants. We got the soil prepped, we picked out our Cherry Tomatoes, our Rainbow Tomatoes, our Big Boy Tomatoes, and placed them in the soil. We planted peppers and watered, waited, weeded, fertilized, protected, and waited and dreamt of the Salsa I would make with the harvest.

We waited, and waited, and waited, and saw lots of flowers and more flowers - oh, we loved those hope-giving flowers. Then, a small tomato, and another, and then…that was all. Our tomatoes did not arrive. We had well-fed, mature tomato plants that bore no fruit. We had an abundance of peppers, but no tomatoes. Every time I tell this story to someone, they say it is weird. We instinctively know that mature plants that do not produce fruit are not normal.

So, in the face of such tragedy, I decided to do two things. One, pull out the plants. Two, write about it. Hang on-it is about to get bumpy.

When God was making stuff, you know the whole "in the beginning" scene, he built into the design the need, ability, and desire to reproduce. Plants, animals, people all reproduce and in his creative design, each after its kind. Think about this too, the entire structure of God's great rescue plan started with a guy named Abram and his wife, Sarai. Their role, to physically and spiritually reproduce a people. It is the brilliance of God that when he starts something, he designs it to reproduce.

Did you know that just as God built reproduction into the design of creation and into the founding of a nation, he also built this same reproductive design into his church? Here is how he describes this design. "Go make disciples, teach them, baptize them, and I will be in your corner the whole time." Then, to put emphasis on his words, he added that this was done in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Making disciples who also make disciples is the DNA of the church. It is the creative design of God for Christians and the church to bear fruit. That means us. When we don't bear fruit, it seems kind of weird. Think about it.

In Christ, we have been forgiven, loved, and adopted into God's family; it seems weird to keep that to ourselves. In Christ, we are set free from sin, made whole, and given life and hope; it seems weird to keep that to ourselves. In Christ, we have strength to break habits, become new creations, and find life; it seems weird to keep that to ourselves.

Let's recap before you go.

God designed things to reproduce.

God wants us to bear fruit.

When we realize how amazing God is, it seems weird to keep God to ourselves.

Matthew 28:18-20

Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."