Are you connected?
“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit
of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in
Me. “I am the vine, you are the
branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me
you can do nothing.” John 15: 4-5
While doing my weekly maintenance to my houseplants, I noticed
that some of the leaves were beginning to turn brown on one of my favorite
Philodendron vines. After close inspection I also noticed that though there
were no sign of mites or any other pest; at the area where the vines met the
soil they seem to be shriveling away.
This plant was given to me as part of a dish garden many, many years ago
and I had taken excellent care, or at least I thought, to this plant. So it surprised me when I took it over to the
sink to spray it down with water and as I lifted the vines, the whole plant
lifted up and came away from the soil as easy as lifting one’s hat from their
head!
I then remembered that the week before, I had vigorously given
this plant a good spraying as I lifted its heavy vines. And in so doing my “good”
maintenance, I must have separated the vines from its main root! And though it still looked nice and green
just sitting there on the stand, I soon found out that it was in the process of
slowly dying from being separated from its root.
Some of us may look alright on the outside but are we really
connected to God? Lots of churches had their little promo’s going a few years
back to get folks to stay in church and get involved. Many had lapel pins and banners
displayed with sayings like “Are you connected?” and “I’m Hooked”. All with the
noble intention I’m sure of encouraging members to be connected to their church
organization. But in the scripture above
John writes about hearing Jesus speak of us being connected with Him.
The church organization and its members can be a blessing to
each other in times of need; to agree with you in prayer, to be by your side in
times of trouble, even to bring meals over during a rough time; and I have experienced
all of these selfless acts by wonderful fellow church members. But I have also seen church members that
appear on the outside as if everything was just fine when they really had lost
their true connection and were slowly dying and withering away; because their
connection was with the organization and not God Himself.
Paul wrote “…that I might know HIM…”, shouldn’t that be the
cry of our hearts? He is the vine and we
are just branches. He is our true source.
My prayer: “Lord, I want to stay connected to You, because You are my
Life source.” Amen
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