Stressing the Vine
Visiting my friend's home is always a refreshing treat. Especially when it comes to her backyard. The best description is an oasis of gorgeous flowers enjoying their specially selected locations under the mature trees throughout the entire perimeter. She and her husband have put in countless hours of back-breaking cultivation, and it shows. They have been rewarded with tranquility encountered by simply stepping out their back door. The furthest right hand corner of the property displays an amazing vegetable garden with more varieties of lettuce imaginable. Working the ground has become a therapeutic fix for my dear friend and they regularly reap its harvest.
A couple of weeks ago, we sat side by side, enjoying the birds and musing over their beautiful songs. As we talked, she pointed at the grapevine and said sadly, "No grapes this year. Nothing! And I've done everything possible, catering to their every need - from just the right amounts of water, sunlight and food. It's been exhausting." But the fullness of foliage was undeniable. The vines climbed happily on the many trellises her husband had made. Then she turned to me and said, "I finally learned that I'd been overly doting the plants. Believe it or not, the vine has to be stressed in order to produce!"
In the book of John, and the fifteenth chapter, Jesus Christ declared "I am the Vine, and you are the branches. Apart from Me, you can do nothing."
There were many times that He was stressed but nothing compares to the end of His earthly life. From the scene in the Garden of Gethsemane where He cried out to the Father in agony, to His arrest that evening, and finally to His brutal scourging and bloodshed on a cruel wooden cross - Jesus' stress is unfathomable.
In the letter Paul wrote to the church in Galatia, we learn that as branches on the vine, we naturally produce spiritual fruit. Jesus had also stated that we would recognize each other by that fruit (Matthew 7). Because He was stressed, there is and always be perpetual and observable fruit produced by those who remain in Him. I can attest that truly, apart from Jesus, we can do nothing.
Sunlight on water.
ReplyDeleteSongbirds in a forest.
Desert sands under moonlight.
Vineyards just before harvest.
These all share something in common—they reflect the heart of a particular artist. They are his masterpieces, his expression and his gift to us. The artist’s name is Jesus. Something else lies in common between these treasures and Jesus as well—words on a page cannot compare to a personal experience. Sailing the ocean on a bright morning with the wind in your face, wandering under a forest canopy while sunlight filters down, lying on warm dunes beneath a full moon watching shooting stars, drinking in the lush beauty of vineyards on a hillside in early autumn—these experiences are far closer to what it is actually like to experience Jesus than mere talk of him could ever be. More words about Jesus are helpful only if they bring us to an experience of him. We don’t need further speculation or debate. We need Jesus himself. And you can have him. Really. You can experience Jesus intimately. You were meant to. For despite the vandalizing of Jesus Christ by religion and the world, he is still alive and very much himself. Though nowadays it takes a bit of uncovering to know him as he is. A simple prayer, at the outset, will loose encounters like a landslide:
Jesus, I ask you for you.
For the real you.
Beautiful Outlaw
by John Eldredge