Encouragement

The Vineyard, Up Close And Personal

by "Leta - Message Bringer"
04/06/23
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Have you ever seen a gardener working  diligently to preserve, restore and bring strength to a plant?  As a child, I was blessed to have a grandfather  who was a professional gardener.  Many days, when we would visit him and my grandma, I remember seeing him working in his own yard.

 It was beautiful.  It was always well trimmed.  The grass was always cut.  Many times, I would see him clipping and trimming the bushes.  I don’t recall ever seeing a dead or withering flower on any of the plants or bushes in their yard.  The yard always smelled of freshly blossomed flowers and fresh cut grass.  There were fruit trees in the yard; an apple tree, a cherry tree and a crab apple tree.  We grandchildren would always climb up in a tree, sit and eat until our hearts were content.

Our yard was similar.  My mother loved gardening, and taught us the love of being a gardener.  Spring and summer was wonderful, and there were so many beautiful flowers and bushes in our yard.  The soil was so dark and rich.  Sometimes it would seem, we’d plant a seed one day, and the very next day it would sprout.

As pristine as the yard was, so was the vegetable garden.  Now the vegetable garden came along much later in my childhood.  By this time we had moved to a different house.  The soil was not as rich or dark in color, and it was very dry.  Nonetheless, our garden always produced beautiful fruit and vegetables.  The yard was always well trimmed and clean.  The smell of honey suckles and flowers was always in the air.

When the LORD created Adam and Eve, He would visit them every evening in the garden, called Eden.  They would fellowship together.  I can imagine the aroma they must have experienced as they walked together in the cool of the day.  What wonderful fellowship they must have enjoyed.  What blissful love they must have experienced.  Perfect God visits perfect man.  Beautiful.  It is so unfortunate  that man fell, and so much had to be done by our Lord to redeem us back to Him.  I am so thankful that He has restored fellowship with us, and that we are saved by grace through our faith and belief in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (Yeshua).  This is a gift from the Father.

The book of John has been so revelatory to me.  John chapter 15, Jesus talks about himself and how we are in relation to Him, and how we must remain in him, but even in our remaining in Him, the Father purges us. 

John 15:1-2 reads: “I am the true vine, and My Father is the keeper of the vineyard.  2He cuts off every branch in Me that bears no fruit, and every branch that does bear fruit, He prunes to make it even more fruitful.” Berean Standard Bible 

TheKing James Version says, “He purgeth it….”  In other words He cleans it.  So that it will bring forth more fruit, and that fruit will be healthier and stronger fruit because the Father purged it.  As a new believer I thought of and imagined this to be a terrible and maybe painful thing.

Remember the memories of my grandfather’s yard and gardens.  I had mentioned having no recall of seeing withered or dead leaves.  I saw no death in his gardens.  I only saw life and beauty. 

Just as a gardener is very meticulous about the care and wellbeing of his garden; so is the Vinedresser (our heavenly Father), of the Lord’s branches towards His garden.

He thoroughly investigates each aspect of the branch; seeing where healing is needed.  He delights in us, so He comes and inspects, touches, smells and makes sure there is life in the branches in the Vine.  I myself have cut away stems and leaves that were not faring very well on a particular plant.  I could have left it, but in doing so, it would have placed tremendous stress on the  plant and cause the plant as a whole to not do as well.  Pruning a plant always brings strength to the plant. 

A neighbor of mine gifted me a spider plant.  It was beautiful and was doing quite well.  One evening I forgot to bring it in at sunset and during the night we had a terrible frost.  The next day I remember that I had left the plant outside overnight.  When I remembered the plant, it had frost bight and was limp and almost lifeless.  I tried to revive it but unfortunately nothing I did helped.  My last ditched effort was to prune the whole plant.  I simply didn’t have the heart to throw it out. So, I cut it all back to about one inch from the soil and watered it.  After a very short time; just a few days, life and strength returned to my little spider plant and it’s doing wonderfully today.

Just as I had to prune my plant, the Father prunes us.  He teaches us and leads us.  He keeps us in the Lord by the Word.  The Word cleanses us, and we are strengthened because of the Word.  Because we remain in Jesus, even after the Father purges us, we are strengthened and bare more fruit, and this fruit is more beautiful and more powerful.