The Story of a Garden, a Vineyard, and a Body

Long ago, a Gardener spoke a sprawling garden into existence, filling it with abundant life and calling it very good. But life in the garden disagreed with the Gardener’s terms and rejected His perfect conditions. To its own destruction, the garden went its own way. 

The Gardener was not finished with His work; giving life was in His nature, and it was His delight. He had his eye on a scraggly grapevine wilting under the Egyptian sun, and His heart was stirred by its pathetic state.  Instead of cutting it down or letting it die, He uprooted it by hand and carried it with Him until He brought it to a land flowing with milk and honey. There, he transplanted the vine and tended it faithfully until it flourished. “In days to come,” He resolved, “the whole world will be filled with its fruit.” 

But upon growing strong, it turned against the Gardener, resisting His clipping, His watering, and His care. It declared that it was better off free from the Gardener’s routines, and although multiple attempts were made to restore it, it refused to be brought back. It shriveled to nothing.

“What more can I do that I have not already done?” the Gardener thought. In an act of merciful intervention, the Gardener sent His Son.  “I am the true vine.” The Son explained, “Whoever abides in Me and I in him, he is the one who bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing.” 

The Son put Himself in the place of the cursed garden and lifeless vine. To the branches who had fallen and withered in their rejection of His Father, He offered the life in his veins as the source for the whole world to tap into and flourish. 

Those who embrace Him are infused with His DNA and deemed children of His Father.  All who abide in Him, deeply rooted, develop fruit in their lives that looks a lot like the Son’s life: His love transforms their love, and His perfection perfects them. 

But the enemy has been working since the beginning to shame the dependent and embarrass the needy. “You got this far - can’t you take it from here? Only the weak need Him that badly!” he taunts. What he's covering up with his lies is that drawing life from Jesus actually grows confidence. When Jesus' likeness has been developing in his dependent, then there will be no reason to shrivel like a raisin in the sun when He appears face to face. In expectation of that day, cultivate your attachment to Him. Abide.