Pruned With Care - Lifted Up With Love

"I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, bears much fruit."     John 15:5

"I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine- dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit."  John 15:1-2 In my last e-news I talked about that interesting process called pruning. God prunes those who are already bearing fruit in the Kingdom so they can flourish and bear even more fruit. Okay, that's good. But wait a minute! Read those verses again. What was it he does about those branches that don't bear fruit? He takes them away? That doesn't sound good at all. Some translations even read "he cuts them off." We have all gone through periods in our lives when, due to life circumstances that beat us down or our old sinful nature or cold heart, we fail to thrive. It's a harsh and sobering thought that when we are "in Christ" but we don't bear fruit he will cut us off or throw us away. Is that really what Jesus was saying? Our modern translations of Scripture sometimes leave a lot to be desired. Author Bruce Wilkinson writes about this passage. He says, "First, a clearer translation of the Greek word airo, rendered in John 15 as "takes away," would be to "take up" or "lift up." In fact, in both the Bible and in Greek literature, airo never means "cut off." Dr. Wilkinson goes on to recount a story that sheds much light on this passage. It comes from his interesting discussion with none other than the owner of a California vineyard. I quote the conversation out of Bruce Wilkinson's great little book, Secrets of the Vine: "New branches have a natural tendency to trail down and grow along the ground," he explained. "But they don't bear fruit down there. When branches grow along the ground, the leaves get coated in dust. When it rains, they get muddy and mildewed. The branch becomes sick and useless." "What do you do?" I asked. "Cut it off and throw it away?" "Oh, no!" he exclaimed. "The branch is much too valuable for that. We go through the vineyard with a bucket of water looking for those branches. We lift them up and wash them off. Then we wrap them around the trellis or tie them up. Pretty soon they're thriving." Dear friends, do you see what Jesus was trying to say in John 15? Our Father doesn't ruthlessly cut off or throw away branches that fail to produce fruit. Instead, he lifts them up out of the mud, lovingly washes them off, and puts them back in the sun where they can live again. Walk with me this week in a renewed understanding that our lives are continually being lifted up and cared for by the heavenly vine-dresser. The One who sees our dirt and dust knows he has made us to be so much more. And so he prunes and wraps and cleans..... May our desire be to grow and flourish in Him. Greg