Connected To The Vine

Connected to the Vine

I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. John 15:5

Have you ever been in a forested area where myriad trees are fighting for space and light and nutrients and water from the soil? Within many of those areas, you might see enormous vines hanging down from tree limbs.

If you inspect them more closely, you can see that each one of the vines sends off branches, or smaller vines, which wind their way up out of the ground and around the trunk of a tree until they reach a point where the vine’s weight is too much to sustain the upward growth. So the branches turn and continue to grow downward to the ground.

Once the vines are within reach, they make a swing sturdy enough to hold the weight of an adult. However, if you located the taproot, or main vine from which the smaller vines were shooting off, and cut it, eventually those branches would die and your swing would be weakened. Its life-sustaining force—the vine rooted in the nutrients and water from the ground—no longer feeds the branches, and they begin to wither and eventually die.

Just as the branches are connected to the vine, our lives are connected to our Lord. Our ability to live and thrive comes from the vine—our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We have to stay connected to Christ not only to live but to become for others in this world all we were created by Him to be.

Uncommon Key > The next time you prune or pick up a branch in your yard, keep a small one as a reminder of this verse. You are the branch—He is the vine. The continued connection is an eternal lifeline.