In His Footsteps // The True Vine

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser… 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 15:1,5

To recap:

Jesus= the true vine
God= the vinedresser
People= branches

Fruit.

It’s delicious, isn’t it?

When I studied abroad in Costa Rica, I had the opportunity to try many different fruits that I had never tasted before. I think my favorite fruit, however, was the pineapple.

Their pineapple was so much better than the pineapple I’ve bought at the grocery store here in Texas. In Costa Rica, the pineapple was sweet, juicy, bright yellow, and acidic. I loved the mornings when my host-mom served me pineapple with my breakfast.

There are so many kinds of fruit- more than we could ever imagine.

Some fruits are big, some are small. Some are sweet, some are sour. Some are soft, some are crunchy.

Despite all of these differences, all fruit have one major thing in common:

All fruit grew by being attached to the branch of a plant.

Pretty simple truth, right?

The fruit couldn’t come into existence without being attached to the plant. It is a necessity that the fruit stay on the branch until it is completely ripe and nurtured.

Here is a time-lapse video of a pumpkin growing from a tiny seedling to a giant fruit. Notice how the fruit is connected to the branches of the vine the whole time. Also notice how the fruit is constantly growing and maturing.

In order to grow fruit, we must abide in Christ.

It’s the only way. As John 15:5 says, apart from Jesus we can do nothing. Zip. Nada.

In John 15:8, Jesus tells his disciples that “This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.” 

Abiding in Christ leads to producing fruit, which leads to glorifying God.
Pretty cool process, if you ask me.

Jesus is the vine.

He’s our source of life.

Without Him, we wouldn’t be anyone, wouldn’t be able to do anything, and would have nothing.

Just like a vine provides the branches with the nutrients they need, Jesus provides us with what we need. “And my God will meet your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:19).

Not only does Jesus provide us with what we need to live this life, He also gives us life itself.

Without Jesus, we would be sentenced to eternal death, but thanks to His ultimate sacrifice we have eternal life.

Jesus (the vine) connects us (the branches) to one another.

If you and I both belong to Jesus, then we have a gigantic common factor in between us. We instantly belong to the same family, the same body of believers, even if we’ve never met in real life.

“So in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.” Romans 12:5

We can’t thrive without being connected to Christ.

When grapes aren’t connected to the vine, they wither and turn into raisins. There’s no such thing as a prune-y Christian. We’re connected to Jesus at our core, but do our lives reflect that connection?

Are we abiding in our vine?

Posted by Kara Beth & filed under Devotionals. This post has one comment.