Today is August 1st. You know what that means ...

It’s tomato season! Finally. Not the plastic, pale, out-of-season kind you bounce into your grocery cart in January. I’m talking about the good ones: sun-warmed, vine-ripened, full-bodied, grown-in-someone’s-backyard kind of tomatoes. The kind you wait for. The kind that remind you why the waiting was worth it.

There’s something holy about a garden this time of year. Something that whispers what our souls already know but often forget: you can’t rush what matters. You can’t will a tomato to ripen faster, no matter how much you hover over the vine. You can only tend the soil, water regularly, pull weeds when you notice them, and trust that something is happening you can’t see yet.

I think faith is a lot like that.

Sometimes we treat spiritual growth like it’s a self-improvement project; something we should be able to schedule, measure, or speed up. But grace doesn’t operate on a performance timeline. It works slowly, quietly, deep beneath the surface. Sometimes we won’t notice the change until suddenly, we encounter something we didn’t expect: peace in a situation that used to bring anxiety. Compassion in a place that once held bitterness. A sense of belonging where there used to be striving.

It didn’t arrive all at once. It ripened.

And just like in the garden, not everything ripens at the same pace. Some of us are still green on the vine, soaking up warmth and not quite ready. That’s okay. Rushing produces something flavorless. But letting grace do its slow, healing work? That brings life worth savoring.

My wish for you this week, Reader, is that you trust the ripening. That you’ll stop trying to force your way into spiritual fruitfulness and let yourself be loved into it. May you pay attention to what’s growing quietly inside you and celebrate even the smallest signs of color and sweetness emerging. That's the fiLLLed life.

Live a fiLLLed life, Melissa ​

P.S. And if you get the chance, slice a good tomato, sprinkle some salt, and taste how good slow things can be.

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