The Vine (with a twist)

“I am the Vine….you are the branches.
Abide in Me…and you will live.”

John 15:5

This morning, checking my little flower garden beside my back porch, I discovered, much to my delight and surprise, that my favorite flowering vine had sent out a new little tendril, which had somehow reached, through mid-air, to a tall shepherd’s hook about a yard away from the blossoming vine. There was nothing but air between the vine and the shepherd’s hook to which it had now begun to wind itself.

I was delighted . . . yet surprised and puzzled. I know, from the growing bouquet of bright red, large blossoms, that the shepherd’s hook will soon extend that original beautiful “bouquet” further into the garden far beyond what I could have hoped.

I couldn’t help but think of the Words of Jesus, as He taught His dear followers, using a word picture they were seeing as they walked with Him in the countryside.

My dear, Good Shepherd Whispered to my heart the Words He had spoken to His closest followers as they walked along with Him.

I don’t know how that Vine reached across the space and onto that shepherd’s hook. I did not see it happen. But carried by nothing tangible, it had reached beyond where it was planted and blooming, and was now beginning to bring beauty to a plain old, rusty-black shepherd’s staff among the stones.

That’s what Jesus does with us . . . for us. Apart from Him…the Vine….we’re sure to become a shriveled, droopy, dying blossom. We’ll hit the ground eventually, and again become part of the earth.

But the blossoms still connected to the Vine continue to bring color and life and beauty to a landscape of rocks and dirt. A vine moves…extends…and nobody sees it happen. It simply does. And its blossoms will come, open,and bring beauty to a spot that had nothing but stones and a plain, rusty pole.

I am sure that I will soon see that Shepherd’s Hook “blooming” soon.

Our Good…GOOD Shepherd does that as He leads us to places beyond where we were planted. And through our lives that are wrapped around Him, beauty…color…fragrance…
will extend to the rocky places that had no beauty nor life before. It often happens in unexpected ways, and not by human orchestration. That’s part of what makes it so special.

No person can take credit for the new color and fragrance that has entered a plain, rocky place. He simpy chooses to share His surprises in unexpected places where He has brought new life and all ofits beauty.