How Jesus Is Our Stick in the Mud

This Complete Breakfast - Day 5 

Thanks for joining the Short People and me for our morning discussion! Look for more discussions under the "This Complete Breakfast" tab if you'd like to follow along with organized links rather than scrolling through posts. ;)

"I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, 

he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing." —John 15:5

We have several grapevines in our yard... 

This verse makes so much sense when we think about the way the grapevines grow. Before there were ever any grapes, or even any branches or leaves, there had to grow that thick vine at the center. It's the oldest and strongest part of the plant, and it never moves from that spot. It brings the life-giving water and nutrients up from the soil. The sap flows from it into the crazy, young branches that go shooting out all over the place. During spring and early summer, the grape plant quadruples in size as the branches seem to take on a life of their own, changing almost by the hour. It's hard to believe, when you push back all that thick foliage, that it's actually that humble little stick in the mud, covered in crusty bark, that's feeding life to all those fancy leaves and loads of heavy, plump grapes. One of those branches might even grow so long that it winds its way several yards through the tangle of branches until it's clear across the grape arbor from where it started!  But if you were to take a pair of shears and cut that branch off from the vine, you would soon know which one it was, because every leaf and every grape along that branch would die. Without that humble little stick, there would be no fruit. There would be no grape arbor at all. 

It's just like that with us and Jesus.

He is that humble beginning to God's family. He is the Firstborn of God, and all the rest of us grow out of him because of his life-giving presence. God's family has grown fast, just like the grape arbor does every year, but every single one of us can trace our lives back to Jesus. He's the one who created us and continues to sustain us, hold us up, and make it so we can bear fruit. We are his branches. 

What does it mean to abide in him?

Simply put, to abide means to stay. It means to not allow anything to get in the way of our connection to him. We can stay connected to him by talking to him all throughout the day, and by looking into his Word like we're doing right now. It can also mean that if something gets between us and Jesus, to make it right. That might mean confessing sin and apologizing to him, forsaking that choice and deciding to obey him from now on. It might mean giving up something that makes it harder for us to worship Jesus. If we don't have time for him because we're playing too many games or have too many distractions, it's time to give up those distractions. We need that time with Jesus to keep allowing his life to flow through us and help us bear fruit. 

He abides in us too? What does that mean?

It means he stays with us! He keeps pure, unbroken fellowship with us. He promised that he would never leave us, but that the Holy Spirit would make his home in us and continue to be a constant influence on us. He continues to lift us up, speak to us, and help us get rid of sin in our lives. This is like the water and nutrients that flow from the vine into the branches and produce all those fat, juicy grapes. His life flows into us and produces in us love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control.  

None of that happens without Jesus. Just like there are no branches or grapes without the vine.