The Source of Life - Martin Wiles

For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me. John 15:4 NLT

Within a few days, the large, green vibrant leaves were reduced to a brown, crumpled heap.

Mid-spring had arrived, and I decided to plant a small vegetable garden in our backyard. I made sure to plant yellow crook-necked squash—our favorite to fry when battered with cornmeal. Initially, the plants didn’t do well, so I brought out the Miracle Grow and poured it to them weekly. In no time, the plants perked up, grew at a rapid rate, bloomed, and produced numerous squash.

Then spring ended and summer’s heat arrived. The amount of squash diminished, and the once vibrant leaves faded. One day, I said to my wife, “I think I have just picked the last squash.” After doing so, I used my flat hoe to sever the shanks of the plants from the root balls. I left the severed plant lying where I had performed the surgery…and watched.

As my wife and I sat on the patio each night thereafter, we watched death spread. By the end of the week, our once large squash plants lay in a small brown pile. I had severed their source of life. They could no longer produce. They could only fulfill their destiny: death.

The ugly truth is sometimes hard to swallow: I came into this world dead. Not physically, but spiritually. At a young age, I began to show the truth of Jesus’s statement and of the Bible’s message. Through actions and words, I violated God’s principles and commands. I was severed from the Vine. Left that way, I would have carried that state of spiritual death into an eternity separated from God.

But Jesus shares good news amid the bad. If we connect with Him, the Vine, we’ll experience spiritual life now and in eternity. Forgiveness of all our sins is a part of the connection. Once in Him, we produce fruit in our actions, attitudes, and words—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control. We’ll also enjoy life as God intended—in a relationship with Him.

God doesn’t will for any to perish but for all to connect to the Vine. Are you connected?

Prayer: Father, thank You for the connection You provide through Jesus Christ.

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