The Vine and the Branch
Sunday, October 28, 2012 at 1:02AM I struggle. I don't know why, and I don't understand it.
Well, I take that back. I know a part of the why.
I was reading Michaela's devotion with her the other night. It focused on the verses in John in which Jesus says he is the vine and we are the branches. It goes on to say apart from him, we can do nothing.
I've noticed that part before, but for some reason at that moment, it really jumped out at me. I got what it was saying, for a fleeting moment, I realized the truth those words are conveying. I remember clearly now, that feeling of a slap, thinking,"Don't forget what just happened!" and then in a few blinks, a final word to Michaela, a switch of the lamp...the thought was out of my head. Just like that. Just like the light I had turned off so quickly.
It was lying in the corner of my mind just behind my regret regarding donuts, under the question,"What are we going to wear to church tomorrow?" and next to the sticky note on my frontal lobe which says,"Do not forget to add a check and send the World Vision envelopes Monday!"
It was there. I forgot for a bit. But now I remember.
I know why I struggle so. I'm a branch that is hanging on by a thread of a fiber of the vine. I'm swaying in this crazy wind, spinning and waving, but clinging.
Or being clung to. The vine won't let go, even though there hasn't been fruit for a while. The Master Gardener gently holds that almost wayward branch, frail as it is, and carefully, knowingly ties it back onto the vine. Now it can get what it needs from its only source of life. That is the only way I can grow again...how grateful this branch is that there is One who will not let go.
Reader Comments (4)
I have very much felt the sustenance my vine provides me this year. It has kept me alive - some days that feel literal. Without that continual supply of strength I would never have made it.
Oh, Amen, Christina! Me too. So very thankful.
I fell yy, sister! Glad He has more than one hand because I'm swaying right there with you!
One of the blessed – though not immediately satisfying – things about the Christian life is the fact that we don't always get to see the fruit he nurtures and grows in and through us. There must be many good reasons why this is so, but a couple come right to mind....If we look for fruit in us in order to be satisfied, we're looking too much at ourselves, and when we do that, we won't be bearing much fruit....And it gives others the opportunity to encourage us, because often they can see in us what we can't. Yes, that was a little "note to self."