The Upload
Posted on May 01, 2015 by
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
I pray you have had a blessed week!
I love this weather! The temperature is perfect these days. We are getting good amounts of rainfall. The flowers and trees are in full bloom and I can sit on my back deck and watch the birds and animals. I just love this time of year and now, in just about a week, Jill and I will begin planting our garden which is another reason I love the spring. We really do have fun planting our vegetables, herbs and annual flowers. Planting our garden always brings a little extra joy into our lives.
But, I also know that as much fun as it is to plant the garden and flowers that the planting is the easy part. You see, once everything is planted, then we need to make sure we water regularly, we need to provide fertilizers, we need to weed, and of course with some of the plants we need to prune them regularly. Being the caretaker of the garden is a lot of work, but without it, the garden would not produce the great vegetables and fruits that we desire.
This Sunday, we will read about another caretaker when we read John 15:1-8. The story begins with Jesus saying, “I am the vine and my father is the vine grower” (15:1). Then, a few verses later he says, I am the vine, you are the branches” (15:5). So, Jesus is the vine, we are the branches and God, our father, is the caretaker of us. What a comforting thought! But, you know, as I think about it, as the caretaker of my garden, I can tell you there are times when I have to do a lot of cutting and trimming to get the plants to produce their fruit. So is Jesus saying that as the branches, there will be times that God will be cutting us back, trimming our lives, and maybe even take some things completely out of our lives so that we might do what we have been created to do? That is exactly what Jesus is saying, and my guess is for most of us, we don’t like the idea of being pruned. We don’t like the idea of having things cut out of our lives, because for the most part we don’t like change. But, as Jesus says in this story, we have been created to bear much fruit, and the only way we can do that is to allow ourselves to be pruned and to then accept those changes, and let our lives grow.
Jesus says, when we do this, we will not only bear much fruit, but in doing so we will glorify God (15:8). My prayer this week is that no matter what is happening in your life that you can accept the changes that are happening and still bear the fruit that you have been created to bear.
Have a blessed week!
Shalom,
Pastor Dave