Faith Like Dad's

I keep remembering as we walk through this valley of the shadow of death that my dad left us a legacy and his testimony. We can say forever that he spoke of God's redeeming love, that he saturated himself in Scripture, that he hid God's word in his heart and meditated on it right to the very end. 

In a world where God is mocked as a fairy tale or a crutch, I have seen Him carry a man into unconditional love. I have seen faith carry a man with grace and dignity to his grave. I know faith.

Religion seems so ugly these days. People are so hot from all different walks of faith that religion on the whole seems like an unnecessary load of hatred. Who could possibly want that? But when you look at people for whom it was a personal relationship, like my dad, you can understand what it is *supposed* to be. 

My dad never wavered in his faith or his beliefs for a moment. His doctrine remained fixed to the end. He spent years behind the pulpit and could preach a hellfire and damnation sermon with the best. Yet, by and large, people remember him as a man who was always willing to help and who always had a smile and a positive attitude... a gentle giant to the end. His love spoke volumes louder than any sermon he ever preached. 

This year was the first birthday in my entire life without his birthday greetings and booming "and many more" at the end of the song, Happy Birthday. That was incredibly hard. I will never again have my beautiful, strong dad on this earth. I miss his laughter in a way that aches so that I fear I may never be able to breathe correctly again. However, I *do* have his testimony. I *do* have his story. I will shout it and I will share it, every chance that I get.

Faith matters because in the end it is about you and God, one on one. Who cares what the religions of the world look like, if we miss that fundamental truth? Faith is what sustains you and brings you peace when you go through horrifying things like he did. ALS is an ugly way to die. It is horrific from start to finish. How could he get through that with grace and dignity? And yet, he did. These bibles show the years of time and use he put into reading and studying Scripture. They are evidence of how important his God and his faith were in his life. Faith may not matter to the mocker but it is everything to some.

We may not see God anywhere in the masses of people arguing online but I tell you, I saw God in the room with my dad all day every day, just as He was visible during other intense trying times in our lives. *That* is what it all comes down to. Faith is nothing at all, if it is not personal.

*Photo credits to my sister, Yaya. <3 

Tomatoes :)

Here are some pictures of tomatoes. :) We've been harvesting primarily cherry tomatoes so far this season. We've brought in a handful of large tomatoes. Two red, two yellow, and one big rainbow (red/yellow blend). My tablet broke a while back so I've only had the (old) digital camera for taking snapshots. That is why I have only a few photos and not every kind of tomato documented. <3 

This small handful was from July 7th, when only a few tomatoes were ripening at a time. Pictured here are chocolate cherry tomatoes and morning sunrise tomatoes (yellow). Both are quite sweet in flavor. In the case of the sunrise, the deeper the yellow, the sweeter the tomato. In my opinion, these taste like they've already been made into a sauce.



 Due to camera shortages (I was still looking around for the digital at the time), we missed nearly the entire month of July. This picture was the first we'd taken in quite a while and it was somewhere around the 28th/29th. 

You can see that by this point, we were bringing in several types of red cherries, yellow and white cherries, and our resident chocolate cherry tomatoes. Each one is delicious!

 This tomato has me stumped. I did not plant any varieties that are supposed to be solid yellow and yet, this is our second or third. This one is smaller than the other two. Each of those would make great slices on bread. This would take two slices instead of one. These taste exactly as you expect a tomato to taste. If you close your eyes, you'd swear it was a run-of-the-mill vine-ripened red tomato.

Since I was running short on pictures, I took a snap of the inside of the yellow tomato. Excuse the disposable plate. It is not pretty, I know. As you can see, the yellow tomatoes are plump and juicy. :) The flavor is almost sweet but still retains enough of that earthy vine-ripened taste one expects to find. As an aside, I can never eat enough tomatoes while they are still warm from the sunshine! :) 

This is another batch of (mostly) cherries that we've brought in. Again, you have a mix of white, yellow, red, and chocolate cherries in an assorted variety. We are bringing in something between a handful to a bowlful at a time. Generally, we eat a handful or two in the morning and bring in a full bowl at the end of the day.The larger tomato was picked too soon. It ripened to a bright orange/near red.