Abide Already
While praying this morning
my mind wandered into a review of troubles. Troubles inspired critiques, and critiques
descended into judgement. Then I think I heard a soft thumping that sounded like
the distant galloping of a horse. It was God drumming His fingertips on the arm
of His throne waiting for me to get back to my prayers. At that moment I was
aware of how small I had become languishing in my discontent and blaming everyone
around me. King David, a very earthy guy like me, put it this way, “How long
will I store up anxious concerns within me, agony in my mind every day?” (Psalm
13:2)
None of us wants to
be small-minded, consumed with petty debates. We want to be significant. I was reminded
that when I am connected with the Almighty I am significant. Not in a way where
it is obvious how I loom large in life. Anyone else looking on the outside
would not see a difference. It’s like being a leaf on a tree. From our office
window I can see fifteen trees of nine different species in our front yard
which is about fifty feet square. They completely cover the view from the bottom
to the top of the window. Trees are spectacular. When I am connected to God I
am part of something spectacular. The tree doesn’t call attention to me but
that is ok. The tree does good things. A leaf eventually falls to the ground and
decays into dirt. There is goodness in that but we might question the contribution
of a single leaf to the dirt. Indeed it seems to be as likely to be as much trouble
as helpful. Why else do we haul a ton or two of leaves off to the dump every October?
Given all this I wondered how much time a day I spend being a discarded shriveling
leaf on the ground versus being part of a tree?
Jesus
gave us another botanical metaphor that was understandably more relevant for
His time. In their day they did not have a supermarket down the street from which
they could fill their cupboards. Significant plants for them were mostly ones
that fed them. His metaphor used the grape vine. He said He is the vine, we are the branches, and the significance for a branch is to bear good fruit. That’s pretty neat. But a
branch that does not remain connected to the vine does not bear good fruit. At
best it bears fruit that shrivels up and wastes away, and the branch itself dries
up and becomes firewood. Jesus was really good at this metaphor thing, wasn’t
He? He put it this way, “I am the vine, you are the branches. All who abide in Me,
and I in them, bear much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” This is
from the Gospel of John chapter 15. Because Jesus was the Teacher, He develops
the idea eloquently and to the utmost relevance. He has a lot of very important
things to say about abiding as useful branches. Go read this chapter. It’s a
good idea to pay attention to what He said there.
So
I thought I’d throw all this down on paper to remind myself what is the bigger
picture. I’m feeling very fruity right now, let’s see how I do today.
