In late May of this year, we planted Sweet Peas and Morning Glories in a bed at our veranda’s front end. They grew into a charming vine encompassed by a screen of green in about six weeks. We expected the Sweet Peas and Morning Glories to break into bloom, but there was nothing but vine after July. It kept growing, and eventually, by mid-July, they’d started to wrap around our barbecue. It attacked and blanked out a solar light. It wrapped itself, octopus style, around the veranda, and over the top as well.
It took about an hour’s work to recover the barbecue, veranda, and even chairs. It was then, as we were claiming the inside of the veranda that I had a dramatic example of a Biblical Truth; John, Chapter l4, tells of the Vine, the True Vine, and My Father is the husbandman.
I realized we were cutting away branches that did not bear fruit (or in this case, flowers), but the analogy was there. We had one stretch that was sun-bleached and starting to die, so we cut that out. Behind it was a fresh vine, and inside a leafhopper. This little green critter crawled into the vine and settled in. Nothing would drive it out, it seemed, and the thought of the fifth, sixth, and seventh verses of the story:
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“He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same
bringeth forth much fruit…for without Me ye can
do nothing. If a man abide not in Me, he is cast
forth as a branch, and is withered: and men
gather them and cast them into the fire and they
are burnt. If ye abide in Me, and My words abide
in you, ye shall ask what you will, and it shall be
done for you.”
Here was this little critter, comfortably abiding in the vine, and despite the pruning, nothing could drive him out. He could fly and he could hop, but he just lay there amongst the branches. He was still there a couple of days later.
Our vine continues to grow, and once again, it will attack the barbecue, the solar light and who knows what else. Our vines don’t have any flowers yet, but they are still growing. As they grow, they give a strong message that God who loves Everyone and Every Thing wants to shelter us. I encourage you to Abide in the Vine as well.
