Branches Down

Branches Down

Nearly two weeks after Hurricane Ike ripped through Houston, Galveston, and the surrounding areas, streets in almost every neighborhood in my town were still littered with branches. Ike tore trees limb from limb, leaving tons of debris in its wake. The tiny tree lawn in front of my house was stacked head high with broken branches—most of them from the enormous oak in my backyard that split down the middle all the way to its roots. And next to my stack stood my neighbor’s stack and her neighbor’s stack and so on—all the way down the street.

On the first day after the storm, the downed branches all of us were cutting and dragging to the curb were still green. But as each day passed, fewer and fewer glimpses of green were visible. In a very short time, every downed branch was brittle and brown. Each one. Separated from the trunks and roots that gave them life-giving nutrients, they quickly died. The resulting stacks of dead branches hardly resembled the trees from which they’d been separated by howling winds and rain.

How is it, then, that I expect to thrive apart from the vine of Jesus Christ? How do I imagine that I might keep my soul fresh and fragrant apart from his quickening Spirit? How can I hope to bloom and bear fruit separated for even a day from him?

City contractors would eventually come and haul all those dead branches away. But with each day that passed, they became a stronger and stronger reminder to me to abide. I need the Spirit of the living God like those branches needed the life that comes from within, and apart from him, I really can do nothing.

Stripped from the support of his strong and steadying trunk, I am fit for nothing but the trash heap, but connected to him—engrafted to him—there is life: green, growing, vibrant, fresh life. One look at the downed branches made it easy to see where I belong.

Remain in me, as I also 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 you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit.

John 15:4-5, NIV