“I am
the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 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. You
are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I
will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the
vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
Dear Zebras,
I’m not sure if it’s my imagination but we
seem to be having a very windy summer here in Benicia. And because of that quite a few limbs have
fallen off of trees. The first one was a
few weeks ago while I was doing my quite time. I looked up just in time to see
a very large branch fall from the tree across the street.
It fell with a large crack and a “poof.” There were so many leaves on the branch it “fluffed”
as it hit the ground taking a few minutes for all the leaves to settle down and
quit moving. Since the house across the
street is currently empty the branch sat on the lawn for a few days so I got to
look at it every morning for about a week.
What amazed me was how quickly a vibrant
branch withered and died when removed from the tree. And I was reminded of
Jesus’ warning to His disciples in John 15.
John
15:5–6 (NIV84)
"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man
remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do
nothing. If anyone does not remain in
me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are
picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.
As Christians the most important thing we can
do is to stay connected to Jesus. He is
what gives us life and the ability to do anything of value. But too often in this busy world Jesus gets
pushed to the background and real quality time with God gets overlooked in our
hurry to do “more important” things.
But the truth is there is nothing that is more
important, especially if we want to be a fruitful branch.
Love,
Jill
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