6
Jesus Is …
The Vine
James & Holly Brown

“I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener … Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me.”

John 15:1, 4 (NLT)

I remember as a child, once the Christmas tree was decorated in the family room, I would sneak underneath the tree, lay on my back, and stare up through the branches. Each layer held homemade ornaments, tinsel, and giant multicolored lightbulbs that emitted so much heat they were no doubt a fire hazard. It was a kaleidoscope of color to my childhood eyes and marked the beginning of a season full of wonder.

The feeling of nostalgia and warmth you get from a masterfully decorated Christmas tree is like none other. For many, the tree is the centerpiece—a gathering place and scrapbook—that marks the beginning of the Christmas season. In our house, the night we decorate the tree is magical and full of tradition. There must be three things: decorations, hot chocolate, and the movie Elf playing on the TV.

We reuse the same artificial tree every year with our kids, but when I was child, a freshly cut pine was tradition. Every December we bought a new sap-filled, needle-dropping, fresh-pine-scented tree—the kind you watched your dad haggle over in the Walmart parking lot. He would strap it the roof of the family sedan and pray it still had the same shape and luster when it arrived home. Dad would cut loose the tightly bound branches and place it in its water-filled stand. There, the trophy evergreen in all its glory, would await its destiny as the symbol of the Christmas season.

But after a few weeks, it would die. The hand-made decorations would be wrapped and packed away, and the browned needles would be Hoovered. A new year would thrust our thoughts into the future and the pine tree to the curb.

The beauty of a Christmas tree, however enchanting, is temporary. It fades, not only because of the changing season, but also because the evergreen is severed from its roots—its life source. Regardless of how many bulbs, sequins, and superficial edifice we wrap it with, its days are numbered. Once it’s removed from where it drew its life, its water, its nutrients, it cannot survive.

We too share this fate. “No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in [Jesus]” (John 15:4 NIV). Unless we continually source our spiritual nutrients from Jesus, we will become depleted. Once detached from our communion and connection with Jesus, we are that soon-wilted timber. Though we place our affection and trust in the temporary tree stands of life, they cannot sustain us. This Christmas, in all the wonder and bustle, may we truly abide in Jesus. He is our Vine—the source of life—and without Him “[we] can do nothing” (John 15:5 NIV).

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