Life Giving
This analogy of vine, branches, and life is so simple. I have heard it a million times over, but no truer words have been spoken of the Christian faith. Just this week I went out to my front yard and noticed that the tree on our front lawn hadn't blossomed in spring like all the others in the neighborhood. At first I attributed this to every tree blossoming in it's own time, but after weeks had gone by and still no leaves. I took a closer look. I grabbed one of the branches and it broke off brittle in my hands. I grabbed branch after branch and without much force at all they broke one by one in my hands. You know when life flows through the connectedness of the limbs of the tree they are pliable, they are flexible, they are resilient. But when a tree is cut off from it's life source it doesn't take much for it to quickly become brittle. It ceases to produce fruit. It ceases to grow. And with even a little force this once strong life giving tree can snap. This is the Christian life. May we heed the final words of Christ. May we remain rooting in his life-giving branches.
