–John 15:1
Jesus is the true vine and his Father is the husbandman, vinedresser. The TRUE vine—this makes me think of different vines I’ve run into in my gardening. Our son and his wife bought a house in South Carolina several years ago and it must have been owned by a gardener at one time. There are seven gardens and tons of flowering trees, but much of it was taken over by vines of different sorts. Thankfully, there were no kudzu vines! If you’ve never lived in the south you may not be familiar with this rascal! A kudzu vine will take over everything and is next to impossible to get rid of!
In the north, we have another nasty vine called poison ivy. As a child, we had poison ivy on the front hill of our property but my mom really worked at keeping it under control. (Don’t ever burn it and stand in the smoke! You will be covered with poison!) When we bought our first home we also had poison ivy, but I didn’t recognize it because it was this hairy looking branch that had connected itself to the trees. The tiny reddish leaves that I was used to seeing were twelve to fifteen feet up the tree!
Bad, or untrue vines. They are out to destroy! Jesus is the true vine and His purposes are always good! He will gladly graft on any branch that believes in Him and then pours Himself into it, nourishing it and strengthening it to produce fruit for His glory.
And then there’s the vinedresser or husbandman—the gardener who really knows how to care for the vine and all His branches. In fact, the Vinedresser willingly cut the vine down knowing that It would revive and be able to nourish the branches in a way that had not been possible before!
Application: Oh, I want to be a good branch! How I want to grow and bring forth fruit, trusting the Father to cut and prune and slash as He sees fit so that I can produce more fruit—much fruit—for His glory!!! Hallelujah! What a Savior!
Beyond Common Sense 