The vineyard does not just happen by itself. There is a complex dance between the vine, the branches and the vine grower. For example, did you know that a single grape-vine can produce as much as 13 feet of new branch growth in one growing season. What happens if all that new growth remains un-pruned? It would not be unusual for that un-pruned vine to have as many as 300 fruit producing buds. While that might sound great, that’s way too many buds for the plant to support. You might have lots of produce, but it will be incredibly low quality, and good for not much. It would probably just end up as fuel for the fire. You would have to prune as much as 75% of the buds and other vegetative growth so the plant can properly develop and ripen the good fruit. The goal is always good fruit.
And it is not just the buds that need to be pruned in growing season. In the late winter, some of last year’s branches need to be cut off. A branch that is more than two years old will no longer produce fruit – and so you cut it off to leave capacity for the new growth to flourish and produce fruit.
There have been many seasons in my life and the harvest of each season has been uneven. The barren seasons are the ones when I removed myself – at least to some degree – from the nourishment of the vine; when my needs outweigh the needs of the community. And yet, by the grace of God, there have been more seasons when the fruit has been plentiful. Those were, and continue to be, the seasons when I allow the grace of the vine grower to empty my garages and storage units, set down the baggage and burdens, and move away from the paths of sin. The seasons when I remembered to whom I belong – the One who said: “Remain in me, as I remain in you.”
This is more than good advice or an invitation. This is a promise, like it or not, Jesus will hold onto us as surely as the vine holds dear the branches. No matter what has been accumulated that is burdensome, troublesome, onerous, worrying, or unsettling, God is committed to nourish life and hope from the very places that seem most devoid of goodness. It is a promise that God in Jesus will bring all things to a good end.
That promise is real. So real that His only Son Jesus chose not to sit back in heaven, removed from the messiness of life, but planted himself as the true vine right in the middle of our days and nights, our joys and sorrow, and all the frailties and faults of life in this world – so that we would know of God’s unending promise to us.
Remain in Him as He remains in you.
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