The Vine, The Root and Its Branches

I came across a horticultural website designed to be a resource for individuals wanting to grow grapevines. Since it was in the form of question and answer I easily discovered some very interesting facts about grapevines. For example, grapevines are rather hearty; some varieties almost to the extent of being stubborn in that cutting them back to the root doesn’t necessarily prevent them from producing fruit. In fact deliberate pruning strengthens their ability to grow. In addition, those varieties which have a tendency to serpentine its roots across the surface of the soil, can develop nodes from which one or more leaves emerge that can be subsequently removed from the mother root and replanted to create another fruit bearing vine. This of course brought to mind the extended metaphor of the “True Vine” in John 15. In life, no one really wants to be pruned particularly when the fruit that we bear is so plentiful. We sometimes forget that only good fruit bears good fruit even as it is deployed away from its original root. As for the bad fruit, well what else can be said except let the pruning begin – that we may enjoy God’s Kingdom in the way he always intended, by extension of the “true” root and bearing fruit simply on the heartiness and strength of his vine.

John 15:1-2, 5 ‘I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine-grower. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit.  I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit…