{Day 273}

Peaking from the behind the broad green canopy of leaves deep purple morsels hung collectively from gnarly branches.  Separating the leaves I reached out and plucked the fruit.  I placed one of the grapes into my mouth and as the tight skins burst, sweet nectar danced on my tongue.  The tart seeds made for a pleasant surprise and I marveled at how perfect and beautiful the fruit was.  I’ve talked about some thoughts that fruit has caused me to reflect on here but today’s thought is different.  What came to mind was the scripture in John chapter 15 verses one through five.

“‘I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser.  Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.  Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.  Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.  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.‘” (emphasis added)

For the past two weeks I have been contemplating even more whether or not my life is abiding in the vine as I was intended to be.  Am I drawing my strength and my everything from Jesus?  I say I want more of him but am I actively seeking to spend time with him?  To grow any relationship takes time and effort.  My relationship with Jesus isn’t any different.  It is vital.  While looking at the picture of these grapes I took I was reminded of how C.S. Lewis brilliantly talks about miracles in his book God in the Dock.

“God creates the vine and teaches it to draw up water by its roots and, with the aid of the sun, to turn that water into juice which will ferment and take on certain qualities. Thus ever year, from Noah’s time till ours, God turns water into wine. That, men fail to see. Either like the Pagans they refer the process to some finite spirit, Bacchus or Dionysus: or else, like the moderns, they attribute real and ultimate causality to the chemical and other material phenomena which are all that our senses can discover in it. But when Christ at Cana makes water into wine, the mask is off. [John 2:1-11] The miracle has only half its effect if it only convinces us that Christ is God: it will have its full effect whenever we see a vineyard or drink a glass of wine we remember that here works He who sat at the wedding party in Cana.” (emphasis added)

I want to see miracles.  The incredible thing is that I can.  Like Lewis says they are everywhere.  I just need eyes to see them.  How do I do that?  We can’t see unless we are intimately connected to the vine, Jesus.  Relish in the gift yes, but more than that delight in the Giver of the gift.  I want to experience the sweetness that comes from being with Jesus and the more I’m with him the more I can see him and hear him.  And I will see water turned to wine.  The amazing part is that I will begin to see something even more incredible than the miracle.  I will glimpse the One who creates them.