I Am The Vine

The song, "I Am the Vine," brought to mind a memory of grape vines when I was a kid waiting for the school bus. There was this vine across the street that is so old that we used to take pieces from it and imitate smoking a cigarette. That is over 30 years ago now. Through the years I would always look at that grape vine and the other grape vines around the area. I remember always checking to see if there were any grapes on them. There was one that did and I accidentally cut it down when cleaning the stone wall from brush and saplings. The skins on that one were tart, but the fruit was delicious. That was the only vine I knew that produced grapes. This year was a remarkable year, two other vines produced grapes. This story is quite unique because it was unexpected. One day as I was walking up and down the driveway for exercise, I was also having a wonderful interior conversation with God. To me the most amazing thing always seems to come about when God wants to let something known. He does it in a profound way. That day as I was on my second round down the driveway a breeze wafted the scent of grapes. I looked directly across the street at the old grape vine and saw grapes. This was the first time that in all the years that I've seen that vine it produced grapes. Unfortunately I could not reach them, or try to pull a vine down as poison ivy was also growing amid the vines. So I thought to my Heavenly Father it would be nice to try a grape since He went out of His way for me to smell them. On my next pass down the driveway I approached the vine and to my delight there was a spot that I could try a small bunch. Those grapes were the sweetest grapes I have ever tasted. Down the ways was another vine with grapes too, but these had tart skins while the insides were sweet. They were nothing like the vines I was able to sample the grapes from. You wonder what this story is all about; well it is about a story that is also in the Bible, John 15: 1-11. God reinforced His word by showing the fruit of His Love. His Love is very sweet, and yes He does prune us to also produce fruit for His Kingdom. What was even more remarkable was a nut tree giving three nuts from one branch, two joined and another by its side this tree never produced any fruit either. That was a first. For me I see God's Hand in all of creation, and I thank Him for what He has done. God Bless