John 15, part 2

Same chapter, different angle. Now that we all know who we are and who we aren't, we can think more about Jesus' analogy of the vineyard. It's lovely today, but it looks nothing at all like the vineyards in photos and movies. That's because it's winter. Spring has not yet come.

All of the rows and rows of vines are lined up underneath long, strong wires that cross the length of the vineyard. Each vine has a tangle of branches growing from it, but at this time of year, most of them have been clipped off. Pruned. And the ones that remain have been bent almost to the breaking point and twisted around the wire. Trained. And all of them are bare and leafless. Resting.

That's what this season is for. Pruning, training, and resting. It's preparation time. It may not seem important, but there would be no harvest without the pruning, training, and resting that comes during the winter.

Think about what season you're in. Is it winter? Is is the springtime, full of effortless growth from the warm rains and often weeded soil? Is it the stressful season of drought, bugs, and heat?Those necessary struggles that turn the sour to sweet? Or is it harvest, the rewarding days that come after the months of diligence? The fruit of a whole cycle of allowing the gardener to have His way in you?

Whatever season you're in, it's just that. A season. And every one of them has a purpose for the gardener to lovingly work through us. I want to not only tolerate these cycles in my walk with Him but embrace and look forward to them. I hope that today's walk through this physical vineyard will remind me of all of the ways I still need to invite God to be the master gardener of His own vineyard.