Do we picture God down on the farm? Out in the field? Tending crops? Kneeling in the dirt? At the beginning of Chapter 15 (verses 1-6) of the Gospel according to John, Jesus places Abba God directly in the field of agriculture. He says, “I am the vine. You are the branches. My Abba is the one who works the vineyard.”
We once took our vacation in Germany, in the valley of the river Moselle. It’s wine country! One of the walking trails along the hillside passes through an expansive vineyard. Every so often there is an informational placard, explaining something about growing grapes to produce quality wine. One of the facts that stays with me is: from Spring until after the harvest, the vinedresser tends the land and each vine about 19 times. Definitely time intensive!
The work that God does with each and every one is prodigious and necessary – working and nourishing the soil in which we are planted, cutting away all that is dead in us, pruning us back to the point where it looks like nothing viable remains (but there is!), removing what is immature and excessive, so that we can be stronger, more fully alive and abundantly fruitful in the vineyard that is the world. And God never stops. (Good thing!)
You can imagine how painful this is. Probably you’ve experienced it. Maybe you didn’t recognize what was going on at the time. It’s so hard for us to let go of who we think we are, and who we think we should be. We have so many habits that get in the way of what God would prefer for us. We fearfully hang on for dear life to what is more than we require, what is not really life-giving for ourselves and for those with whom we’re connected. The soil we would choose for ourselves often cannot sustain us during all the seasons and in all the weather we will experience throughout our days.
God knows what to leave – what we truly need. The exquisite care with which God works within us is incredible. If we go along with the action of God’s Spirit, how amazing and fine is the wine that flows out from our lives!
Jana Buckley says:
Oh, how amazing is it to think of how active and ‘hands-on’ God is in our lives instead of as a ‘sit back and observe only’ father?
The scenario of God in the role as a gardener makes me wonder how many other ways He is portrayed in the Bible that I have overlooked.
Kevin Buckley says:
I seek that vineyard. How much time did I waste bumbling around in the wrong vineyard. Didn’t even know I should be keeping an eye out for the right vineyard. Sometimes it takes a good slap on the side of the head to realize what God wants for us – or from us. I hope like the path you walked in Germany, I eventually come to a place I recognize as the right vineyard, I long for that day,. Until then, I continue to bumble along ( I do a lot of that ) hoping God’s guidance gives me a hint I’m headed in the right direction. ‘Abba, come out, come out, wherever you are.’