Love Apples
A crowd of curious, expectant people gathered around the
county courthouse in Salem, New Jersey. The county fair was
in progress, and they jostled one another in eager
anticipation, for they were about to witness a daring feat.
Soon a man appeared on the steps, holding in one hand a
beautiful red-ripe fruit which had been part of the fair's
decorations. Members of the crowd whispered excitedly to one
another as he held it up for them to see.
"Is he really going to eat it?" some asked, incredulously.
The man was Colonel Robert Gibbon Johnson; the year was
1820; and the fruit was-a tomato, called in those days a
love apple and considered deadly poison. Love apples were
tokens of courtship or lawn decorations. Young men gave them
to their girl friends, who would afterward wear the seeds in
sachets around their necks. The fruit was admired for its
beauty, but no one-repeat, no one-would dream of eating it.
The crowd gasped in horror as the colonel deliberately
placed the tomato in his mouth, and ate it with apparent
relish. They waited breathlessly, expecting soon to see him
writhing in agony, dying on the courtyard steps.
But nothing like that happened. Instead-
He ate a second tomato, explaining, as he ate, that tomatoes
were delicious either cooked or raw. He praised their color
and texture. Then he invited the onlookers to join him in
his meal, and a few of the braver ones went forward. Soon
they too were pronouncing the tomatoes good.
The news spread rapidly, and eventually tomatoes graced most
of the tables of the world, an accepted article of diet
everywhere.
If Colonel Johnson had not eaten that tomato, it is possible
that people would still be admiring "love apples" and
shrinking with horror from the thought of tasting how good
they are.
The Christian life is much the same. One could spend all his
life admiring the lovely Jesus, and not know how really good
He is-until he has tried Him. David challenged all to "taste
and see that the Lord is good." Psalm 34:8
By Eugene Lincoln, Signs of the Times, March 1975. With permission from Dale E. Galusha Pacific Press Ministries dalgal@pacificpress.com