Tomato Patch Truths

When I was growing up, the neighborhood basketball court was in my driveway.  We had an ideal set up for basketball with only one slight problem...a slight downhill trend.    We would have big games out there from time to time.  However, what I remember the most, was playing out there by myself.  For hours and hours I would dribble, shoot, and commentate.  In my mind I was 10 men, playing offense and defense all at the same time.  I kept score and stats.   I was an imaginative kid.  
I am embarrassed to say but from time to time the ball would get away from me...surely it was not an airball that I threw.  My memory is not serving me well right now regarding how the ball got away from me.  When it did, down the hill it would go.  At the base of the hill was a garden. Tomato plants were on the first row of the garden.  If the ball got away from me, the goal was to stop it before it got to the tomatoes without running beyond the ball into the tomatoes.   MOST of the time I was successful.   I was not all the time, however, and a basketball can be rough on a good looking, well producing tomato plant. 
I am sure it only happened once, but I remember trying to prop up the tomato branches after such a ball got loose and did such a kind of damage.   I got good at it.  I could make a tomato plant look like it had never been damaged....on the day that it happened.  The problem was in the days to follow.  If the branch was damaged at its connection to the vine, it was only a matter of time.  After a few days, the branch no longer looked good.  It would begin to wilt, and slowly die away.  
Jesus said that we are the same way.   He put it this way in John 15:5- I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.  In other words don't be a propped up Christian trying to look fruitful when you are not hooked daily into the vine getting the spiritual nutrients that you need every day to accomplish much or to bear much fruit for the Lord.  I read my Bible daily because that is exactly how often I need it...every day.  Without it, I (and you) will be wilting.   Hook into the Vine and bear great fruit for the Kingdom!