Good morning
Zebras,
I love you.
As you can see our
onion has gotten huge. If it is going to
get any bigger and actually produce fruit, it needs to be taken outside and
planted. But I’m not willing to do all
that work. Whatever fondness I had for
it is gone, now it just looks like a large plant that does nothing, so out it
goes.
Even typing
that seems harsh, but no harsher than what Jesus said to a tree did not produce
fruit
Matthew
21:18–19 Early in the morning, as he was on his way back to the city, he was
hungry. Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found
nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, “May you never bear fruit
again!” Immediately the tree withered.
We focus so
much on the love and grace of Jesus Christ we gloss right over some very
difficult and frightening passages.
John 15:1–6 “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. “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.
Jesus is the
vine, we are the branches, God is the gardener constantly pruning and shaping
us into something that will bear fruit.
Our job is to remain in the vine and not wiggle away from God’s
clippers. If we do that the passage says, we will bear much fruit. Otherwise, we will be gathered up and thrown
into the fire.
Thankfully the
choice is ours.
Love,
Jill
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