The Vine
One of my favorite verses is John 15:5, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” So I began thinking about vines…
There is a lone grapevine on The Harvest House property. Last year it produced enough fruit to make grape juice and jelly. But each time my husband, Tim, mowed past the grapevine this summer; he looked to see if there were grapes growing on it. He insisted that there were no grapes on the vine and that we should think about removing the vine and sowing grass in its place. Knowing just a little about grapevines, I assumed the vine did not get pruned properly and therefore was not producing the bumper crop of grapes that we were expecting.
Not wanting to lose the vine because “it looks pretty”, I insisted that there must be grapes on it somewhere. Sure enough–I found a single cluster of grapes! That was enough to keep the vine around for at least another year. I promised Tim that I would research how to prune a grapevine so it will produce more grapes next summer. What I found was cool….
A very informative You Tube video showed me exactly how to “train, support and prune” the grapevine! So its not enough just to let it grow–it has to be tended to. If John 15:5 tells us to — remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing — then we know we have to stay connected to God; but what about producing “much fruit?” There must be something more….
Let’s see what else we can find in John. Here it is in John 15:2, “He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful”. Well, there it is.
So whether we’re talking about our spiritual lives or that lone grapevine I want to save, let the pruning begin!…we are praying for a bumper crop next year.
