Tomato Patch Truths

Today we read Jeremiah 13-15 and John 15.

I grew up with a basketball goal in the driveway.  Behind the goal there was a slight hill and at the bottom of that hill was the family garden.  On the first row of that garden there were usually tomatoes growing.  When someone missed and missed badly (surely it was not me), that ball would roll down that hill, gain a lot of speed, and bust on up into the tomato plants.  Usually all was fine, but sometimes, those vines suffered a tad.   I soon learned to become the prop master.   If you worked hard and fast, you could prop the broken branches to look like they were just fine.

It worked...for a couple of days.  However, if the branch of the vine was compromised, the nutrition of the vine never reached the branch.  With that kind of compromise the leaf and the fruit would begin to die. I learned that fruit only grows like it should if the fruit is hooked to the branch and the branch to the vine.

Jesus had already taught us that 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.

Don't let the ever-coming, errant basketballs of your life disrupt your connection to the vine.  Do not merely try to prop yourself up spiritually and look healthy.  Hey, branch stay hooked to the vine daily!  Beautiful fruit can come.