“What does it mean to remain in Jesus and produce fruit?” This was the question at Scribettes, my writers group last week. A passage in Gospel John brought up the question.
I’m looking out the window and seeing a white blizzard. Sigh. I wonder if it will ever be time to see anything on a vine? After all, it is March and supposed to be Spring. Except that most of the country is covered in white stuff with more to come. Spring is the shadow.
For sure, real fruit comes about through a vibrant relationship with Jesus. Right now, though, I wonder if the buds of Winter that are hidden in the vine just stay quiet and safe there? It’s in that dark place that the bud is hidden from the elements that would destroy it.
Imagine: all the sweetness, juice, color, shape, nutrition that is yet to come forth, be seen, and enjoyed is all in the place of waiting for just the right conditions to begin to grow. If Winter backs off for a few days and allows unusual warmth, the buds just might peek out and then be surprised by the next wave of freezing. It’s best to stay in waiting than to move too soon.
Then, when the weather truly warms and the sun shines on the vine, it stretches, reaches and begins to open up and produce the leaves that protect the fruit as it forms and grows. Beauty blooms and finally the whole plant comes to maturity and it’s fruit is offered for nourishment.
But the dark place comes first. It’s not easy. It’s wearying. It’s turmoil or pain or anger or other. Can the bud refuse to open? Possibly. Yet remaining in the Vine assures that there is hope, a future and a place of being. If the bud continues to abide in the life of the vine in the dark place, it lives.
And so do we.
“I am the Vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing” John 15:5.
You know I like John 15:5! Great post, Linda Jo. Experiencing the dark right now, while much life is gathering in the meantime. Waiting for Spring and Spring of the heart. Ah, they are coming!