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Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: Vines (11/21/05)
I’m here to tell you it’s not easy being a vine. While some of us vines try so hard to be upstanding and produce good things, there are those vines that are not what they appear to be. Take Poison Ivy for example, it is one of my vine cousins, but have you ever seen how it wraps itself around the trees in the woods or a fence post? It is lush and green in the summer, and in the fall it is a beautiful fiery red, it looks absolutely glorious, but sometimes when touched by human hands it can cause an awful rash and a lot of pain and agony, it has no real purpose and those beautiful looks are very deceiving.

I have another vine cousin that is not so nice or useful either. It tries to impersonate a Morning Glory. It produces beautiful little delicate flowers but in fact it is a binding tenacious vine that chokes out other flowers and productive plants in the garden, it can bind up the farmer’s machinery and in general makes a nuisance of itself. It has no real purpose and the beauty of those delicate little flowers is very deceiving.

I could go on and on about my vine relatives and how they just aren’t what they seem. I tell you it’s not easy being a vine.

Now I am a grape vine and I have to be pruned, have you ever been pruned? That is where the Vine keeper comes in and cuts back all the branches that are not producing. It hurts! He tells me that he does it for my own good so that he will have a bountiful harvest next season, but I sure wish there was an easier way. I want to be obedient and to produce, but sometimes it is just not easy. I get a little aggravated and maybe a little jealous at my other vine cousins, who look pretty, are absolutely no good for anything, and are producing no fruit. They don’t even have to be pruned!

Then I find that being a vine is not only hard but is a big responsibility. The other day my friend Ivy told me that our creator uses us as an example. She said that He tells us that HE is the true vine and HIS FATHER is the Gardner. HE even talks about pruning and how HE cuts off every branch that does not bear fruit. HE says that if I remain in HIM I will bear much fruit and if I do not remain in HIM, I will be like a branch that is thrown away and withers and will be picked up and burned. Wow! Useless branches. I think HE is talking about my unproductive vine cousins who look beautiful but are producing no fruit. They are just going to be burned in the end.

I guess in light of that a little pruning won’t hurt me for now, and my deceptive vine cousins really don’t have it so good, but it’s sure not easy being an obedient productive vine.
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This article has been read 797 times
Member Comments
Member
Date
Jan Ackerson
11/29/05
Good job of personification, and a worthwhile lesson.
Nina Phillips
11/29/05
It certainly isn't. Thank you for sharing a delightful look into "vine world". God bless ya, littlelight
Dan Louise Mann
11/30/05
Yours was one of my top picks this week. Kudos!
Andria Cook
12/02/05
This would make a great skit for a Children's ministry, or even a youth drama team.
Sandra Petersen
12/03/05
I liked the approach that you took: personifying the grape vine to teach the lesson about accepting the pruning and being fruitful. I wish you had named the second type of vine. I honestly didn't know what it was. Otherwise, this was well-written. You had some sentences that were run-ons and were very long as a result. Try to vary the length of your sentences. This technique creates greater interest. I liked the repeated phrase that "it's not easy being a vine." Pulls the whole theme together nicely! Good job!