Company Girl Coffee - The Vine and The Branches

There are many things I love about my new house, but one of my favorite things this Summer has been caring for the grape vines that have gradually wound their way up the lattice to my second floor deck banister.  Part of caring for them has been carefully pruning them and guiding them as they grow.  They will not produce fruit this first year, but I am told that next year they might. 

When I was researching what to do to bed them down for the winter I noticed that expert gardeners recommend pruning them back 90% in their first year.  That seems rather extreme, but in order to help them produce healthy fruit in the years to come, that is what is necessary. 

It is just as necessary for the Lord to also do some pruning in our lives from time to time.  In John 15:1-6 Jesus explains why:

"I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.  I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing."

There is a relationship between the vinedresser (The Father), the Vine (Jesus), and the branches (us).  God the Father does His work, or "pruning" in our lives so that we can be even more fruitful.  We also cannot live without being connected to God the Son.  For apart from Jesus, we can do nothing.  We must both be pruned by the Father, and also Abide in the Son.

There are definitely times when I attempt to do things in my own strength.  Those are usually the seasons where I become weary and dry, badly in need of some TLC from the Great Gardener.  The good news is that Living Water is always available from the Father, flowing freely through His Son.  When we are tapped into the vine, abiding in Him, we are nourished, and able to produce good fruit.

I am reminded of this picture of love every day when I look outside my kitchen window to see the growing grape vines.  That is why I have chosen John 15:5 as my memory verse for the first part of September.

"I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing."

We are headed into a new season here.  I will take the necessary steps for my grape vines to survive through the winter.  I pray that God will do the same for me in the many seasons of my life.  Prune me Lord, that I may bear much fruit in Your Name!

From one branch to another - have a blessed weekend,
~Melissa