When you look at a classic grape vine, it is very hard to tell where the trunk ends and the main branches begin.
The more our lives are in alignment with Jesus, the more fruitful they will be.
God the Father poured all of His love into Jesus, and Jesus poured all of that love into us. In imitating this ‘agape’ love we will be fruitful. That is allowing the love of Jesus to be poured into us; and pouring that love out on to each other.
This is the simplest explanation of His Will for us.
Simple yes;
easy no.
Sometimes we wonder if we could possibly be in the right place at the right time for God’s kind purposes when it seems so arid and dry. But these are the words He says to us:
“You did not choose Me. No, I chose you; and I commissioned you to go out and to bear fruit, fruit that will last.”
It is no accident. The Divine vine-dresser selected us to be precisely here, and has pruned our lives in such ways that we will be the most fruitful here. He has commissioned us, appointed us, deliberately set us in this place, so that we can be fruitful. And not an ordinary level of fruitfulness either; He wants quality long lasting fruit – the kind that go to make up Penfolds Grange and will still be extraordinary 100 years from now, not the kind that is only suitable for cask wine.
If we let His love fully in (1st challenge)
and pour that love fully out onto others (2nd challenge)
then this highest kind of quality fruitfulness is assured.
It is precisely in this seemingly barren place that any flourishing will be seen as something only God could do.
May God grant that the obstacles in our lives to receiving His love may be melted away, and that the obstacles in our lives that prevent us from loving more fully, may they be melted away too. May His infinite merciful love melt all those obstacles away and cause us to be more fruitful in Him than we have ever been before. Amen.