"I am the true vine, and
my Father is the vinedresser.”
John 15:1
When a sun-bronzed farmer approached Pastor Bruce Wilkinson, he shared one of the first Secrets of the Vine.
As in every other part of the world, gravity rules in a vineyard. Therefore, when a vine’s new branches sprout out, they bend downward. Crawling along the ground, they get dusty. When it rains, this dust turns to mud. Soon the branches (and its first attempts at fruit) mildew.
No fruit.
“What do you do with the branch,” said the citified pastor, “cut it off?”
Explaining that a branch is much too valuable to cut off, old farmers explain that vinedressers always bring a bucket of water into the vineyard. When they find a branch trying to crawl along the ground, they lift up the branch. Clean it up. And attach it to the trellis, where it is trained to grow upward and outward.
Jesus says, “I am the vine and my Father is the vinedresser.” In other words, isn’t that the goal of God for our lives – to lift us up, clean us off, and train us to grow upward and outward?!
Look no further than the parable of the prodigal son. A runaway child crawled along the ground and through the gutter. But when the Father encountered him again, he lift him back up (dressed in fine robes), washed him clean (a metaphor for forgiveness), and restored to him a future (in which to grow upward in relationship to his father and outward in a renewed sense of purpose in the world).
In Christ’s Love,
a branch who’s occasionally
crawled upon the ground
(Thanks be to God for the rescue!!!)
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