Metaphor run into the ground. Heard often, preached often, embroidered often on the wall by the bathroom sink.
Just one minute, pilgrim.
Halt your hurried steps long enough to answer just this:
Do you realize what a branch is?
It is the branches that tell whether a tree is alive or dead. It is from the branches that a million leaves open to gather up the sun. It is the branches that turn the used-up air of living organisms back into Oxygen.
It is the branches that hold the fruit...
All the fruit.
A branch that is dry in the height of spring testifies to a tree starkly dead in the midst of bursting life.
Only this Tree, this Vine, can't die.
If it looks dead, it's a lie.
The branches are lying.
Tied up there with twine, but disconnected.
But do you wonder that the world looks no further than the fruitless bough and pronounces the Tree unworthy?
"I am the vine, ye are the branches..."
Incomprehensible is the honor of holding the fruit born of His strength and sap.
Unthinkable the dishonor of surrounding Him with fruitlessness.
"the world looks no further..." So true, and so scary.
ReplyDeletescary is a good word.
ReplyDeleteMmmm... Amazing isn’t it that the Lord would leave in the hands of his feeble and defective children the responsibility of revealing His character to the world?
ReplyDeleteMore thoughts coming quickly. Only the branches bear the fruit. If you aren't a real,living branch, then you are a dead branch. Isn't it amazing that at Christmas, the time to celebrate the living Savior in this world, that people tie fake "fruit/ornaments" on dead branches? It is the best anyone can do without Jesus. Oh, give us more and more of Jesus. Just think about what he can do do dead branches. (Think of the almond branch in the ark in the sanctuary.
ReplyDeleteThank you for this.... reminds me of what I often wonder, that Christ wishes to bestow upon us all heaven of which we deserve nothing? That we shall receive stars in a crown for souls won by His Spirit? No wonder we shall cast our crowns at His feet...
ReplyDeleteamen and amen!
ReplyDeleteThank you! It's such an amazing responsibility we have to represent Christ to the world. And yet so many take the name but not the duty. It's sad. May we all be true branches representing a living tree/vine, bearing fruit, and refreshing the air with heavenly influences!
ReplyDeleteAnd the apostle Paul continues the metaphor when he states that the dead branches, if they persist in refusing the life of the Vine, will get cut away and new branches will be grafted in, who appreciate the life giving Saviour. Praise God that He makes it possible for us to be living branches! And yes, it's no wonder that the majority of people are disaffected with Christianity. What they see is death, instead of living branches, and so they judge the Vine to be worthless... Scary, and sad. What shame to us when we misrepresent Christ like that. May we all accept water from the well of life from Him, that we can be a wellspring of water to others too!
ReplyDeleteThis is so true. May we never make God a liar!
ReplyDelete