Branches

  “I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.” Mathew 15:5 KJ

  In this version, the old King James and in the New King James it is written as, “you are the branches.” The italic emphasis is how this verse was printed.

  Why the emphasis? What’s so important about the word, “are”?

  All I can think of is how often we stress that little three letter word. When this happens, it usually accompanies some sort of identifier. You are a winner, are kind, are courageous. You are…the branches.

 

  Are.  Not will be. Not might be. Not could be. Not for just a little while or sometimes. Are.

  It’s an always and forever word. Amen!

  The affirmation exploration I embarked on a while back was hearing God tell me what I “are” according to His Word and His promises. But it needed to be internalized, owned, to be converted to an “I am”. Sometimes it was a painful process because as positive, life giving words were pouring into my soul; it pushed to the surface a lot of toxic “truths” that shaped who I thought I was.

  Not any longer (smile)…for the most part, anyways.

 

  What does it mean to declare, “I am a branch.”? To say it out loud makes it all the more real.

  It means, to me, I am forever inseparable from Jesus. It means I am a growing, living thing. It means that the “for the most parts” will be pruned away according to their season.

  But that’s not all. That’s the personal stuff.

   This is the best part. Being a branch is being part of a community. It’s an amazing community because not only are there other branches but there are also leaves providing food, both spiritual and carrot cake. Roots are the anchors:  those wise in the ways of Jesus. There are young buds full of the promise of growth: the children, the new believers. There are flowers, a promise of future harvest and whose sweet fragrance draws in the curious, the seeking.

  Flowers are also the hope that elsewhere Jesus vines will grow and prosper as the fruit bears its seeds to other gardens, other lands, other communities.

  I believe all of us in Christ are all these different aspects of the vine simultaneously with the exception of the main vine, the truth of Jesus Christ, that bears us all.