Lessons From a Scarred Tomato

The scarred yet sweet & juicy tomato

This is a special tomato. 

"Why would such a blemished and imperfect tomato be special?" You might ask. Let me explain: This tomato is special for the simple reason that it’s picked from our garden. I grew it. Planted in early May, we gave it TLC for three months till harvest time in August.

I wouldn't buy this tomato or any that looks like it. I spend time poring over produce at the grocery store to ensure no blemished fruit or vegetable makes it to the counter with me.

For one, fresh produce is expensive and whatever we buy is meant to last a while, sometimes for several weeks, and the scarred ones won’t. Even when we intend to use them quickly, the mere task of cutting off the scarred parts seems like too much work. While grocery stores go to great length to ensure only perfect produce is displayed, picky shoppers still take time to skip even the most of superficial scars.

I brought this tomato in and it did not even for a minute occur to me to throw in out. “It’s mine and it’s organic.” I reasoned. Plus, I know that after cutting out the scarred section, it will blend in and be unrecognizable among others in the salad.

This got me thinking about faults and weaknesses. People's everyday weaknesses or annoyances [I am not talking about drama, which I prefer to keep it out of my life]. We’re very quick to see fault in others - be it family, friends or colleagues. Regardless of the depth of the fault, we tend not to care that the fault could be as a result of their circumstances and/or previous experiences. After all, these contribute to molding our character.  Once we identify in others something that displeases us or makes us uncomfortable, then we rush to judge and dismiss. “She’s not my type” or “he’s just too complicated” or they are just “too challenging to deal with”, are some of the arguments we front to justify disengagement from people we should care for and who generally need more care than most.

When we do this, we throw out an opportunity to be human, to show kindness, to forgive and to be an example to others. We shut the door to being vulnerable with others; an important ingredient for friendship and close family relationships. Instead of covering others or helping them cut out faults, we expose their difference, their lack and weakness. We distance ourselves from those we perceive to be weak and different.

This is classic human hypocrisy since as we are judging and criticizing others, we fail to see or acknowledge our own weaknesses. Consequently, when we do acknowledge it, we’re rather quite forgiving of ourselves and want to make others believe that it was a rare mistake or a judgement error and that we’re good most of the time. We also promise to improve ourselves.

Drawing from Scripture, it appears that Jesus was not impressed by the “clean and righteous”. Rather, He identified and reached out to the marginalized, the ones that society had kicked to the curb. The sinners and imperfect were his closest; whom He chose, engaged in conversation and shared meals with. Those are the ones we too should seek out.

Remember, after I cut out the blemish, the salad tasted just as delicious.