Unfolding Enough
All of you is more than enough for all of me.
The Vine
I have the wonderful privilege to lead a group of young adults in Sunday school. You might say I’m their teacher, but each week I learn more from them than they learn from me. We are a diverse little bunch with much to share and most Sunday mornings you’ll find us near the fireplace because one of us is often cold.
It wasn’t my plan, and I can’t remember exactly how we came to consider John’s words.
“I am the Real Vine and my Father is the Farmer. He cuts off every branch of me that doesn’t bear grapes. And every branch that is grape-bearing he prunes back so it will bear even more. You are already pruned back by the message I have spoken.
“Live in me. Make your home in me just as I do in you. In the same way that a branch can’t bear grapes by itself but only by being joined to the vine, you can’t bear fruit unless you are joined with me.
“I am the Vine, you are the branches. When you’re joined with me and I with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant.
John 15:1-8 The Message
I asked, “What does abiding in Christ look like for you?”
She responded, “There once was an old house in town covered by a vine. They wouldn’t remove the vine for fear the house might collapse. The vine held the house together.”
Whoa! The picture in my imagination comes back to me over and over. Because I want to be that house. The house where God grows in and out, weaving through every part of me. I want to be so intertwined with the Holy removing it would cause my collapse.
Let me encourage you, in this time when our eyes and ears are being consumed with uncertainty, to spend some time imagining God intertwined through every particle of your soul’s home.
…holding you up
…strengthening your faith
…keeping you together.
As I thought… meditated… on the True Vine holding my soul together… I saw the house in the image replaced by the world…
He is holding all things together… in the midst of the pandemic He brings life… love… support… peace… purpose…
We are all in His hands… our role is to cling to Him… just as tight as He holds us…
Abide in Him… as He abides in us…
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