Staying Connected

SO, you have heard this verse a million times, but listen to this:

"I Am the vine, you are the branches..." John 15:1

but have you heard this little bit? "My Father is the Gardner.." vs 1b

No? Me neither.

The Gardner. What a name to paint a word picture. Do you know what I see in my mind's eye when I hear that the Father is the Gardner? I see a kind, wrinkled old face of a man who cares deeply for what He has planted. A person who tends, waters, weeds and gently, ever so gently cares for his plants. His vines, his branches.

In this verse, Jesus tell us that He is the vine, we are the branches and as I learned today, the Holy Spirit, is the sap that runs through all the stems, and trunk of this vine to provide nourishment, which gives life to the verse, "apart from me you can nothing..." John 15:5b

I feel a host of emotions right now in the midst of what I am learning about myself, and about the vine and how that relates to my current life situations. When I at the core, am His branch and I am to be connected at all times, in order to maintain life, and in the end bear fruit.

I have sort of forgotten all about bearing fruit, why? Because I have allowed myself to become distracted by my desires, and human thoughts. (interestingly enough i blogged on that yesterday prior to learning what I learned today, perhaps the Gardner is teaching His little wayward vine something important here)

The idea of fruit slips my mind so often I have not considered it for quite some time. And we all know that the fruits of the spirit are this, "Love, joy peace patience, goodness, kindness and self control." Uh-oh. I can tell you right now, those things have been rather absent in my daily existence as of late, and I'm to blame. I'm to blame for a couple of reasons, one of them being that I choose to disconnect from the vine, when I go my own way and act on anything that is not in the realm of the fruits of the spirit. The great Gardner's desire is for me to remain connected to the vine, be nourished off of the sap from the Holy Spirit, and allow He, the Gardner to prune me and tend to my "weeds" so that I can be bearing the most fruit possible to bring the most possible glory to the Father in heaven. Because when this is all said and done, God's work in me, is to bring glory to God. So, I'm dissecting this.

God is my source. My connection to all things pure, good and lovely, anything joyful, anything patient, anything kind and anything worth being alive for.

Is there anything in my life that has been that source for me, other than God? Yes... I will be honest with you here friends, being a Mom has been that for me. And even though I know God gave me that role, and these children to care for, they are not be my everything. He is my everything, He is my vine. They ( my children) cannot be my source of all joy and contentment in my life, and as I love them dearly, they are merely gifts from the Father, and not the source. This realization has been a long time in coming, and don't even think I would have truly recognized it for what it was unless I learned what I am learning right now and had the pruning of the Gardner that I have lately. Pruning you see, can be painful. And the Gardner loves us so much, he cannot bear to watch us live a growth less, fruitless life. He wants us to be the strongest, greenest, most vibrant branch of Christ we can possibly be. Our source HAS GOT to be Him.

As this pruning pricks us to the core, we are left feeling shaken, forsake, and a little angry and these responses are all wrong...these are the times where the Gardner is beckoning us to run close to Him. He is calling us to stop listening to the lies in our head and the distractions all around us, to focus on what really matters most in life, and that is Christ. And how to grow fruit to bring glory to God. When I feel tears of anger at times towards the Lord and I say, "why God!!!! Why is this going on in my life!" He grabs my face in His hands, and whispers to me saying, "because I want to be first in your life...I want to be most important to you. Your children are lovely and wonderful and I love the fact that you love them, but you have to love me first."

As hard as it was to hear that from my saviors lips, I nodded in agreement and as I turned my eyes towards Jesus's, I saw the deep longing in His eyes for me to return to Him, return to my first love, to lay aside all the distractions that have built up over the years, and just rest in Him.

A vine does not have to do anything to bear fruit accept to stay connected to the vine. To suck the life-giving sap from the source and grow. To let the sap feed you and nourish you and all of sudden, by no strength of our own, we begin to grow and bear much fruit.

That's what I want friends. Much fruit. Fruit in this life means to have patience in affliction, joy when it doesn't make sense, peace that passes all understand, kindness beyond belief, and not an ounce of pride. That sounds good.

Well, now I know. Here I stand, at the beginning of another beginning. Thankful. Terrified. Honest. And expectant. I am expectant of His plans. His growth. His Source of all I need is here. And friends, it's here for you too. If any or all of what I have said here has hit home for you, don't hesitate to call the Gardner's name. He will answer. If you feel disconnected, ask Him to reconnect you..and glean from His life-giving sap and you will be amazed as new growth begins. It starts small but ends big and of course, it is all for God's glory.

" I will make you a great nation, I will make your name great and you will be a blessing."

-Gen. 12:2