When Danielle was born in October of 1992, my wife insisted that we plant a tree. I remember doing it in the spring the following year at our new place. That tree today is some 30 feet tall and in actuality is two trees growing very close together. I wanted to prune one, but my Annie wouldn't let me, so there the two trees are reaching for the sky, side by side. When you look at them from the porch outside our house you can't help but notice that they lean to the right as the sun is often gobbled up by the majestic trees that sit just north of these thriving two bean poles. You can hardly see the leaves on these trees as they have had to go so high before putting out branches left and right. As this was brought back to my memory, I am considering some of my favorite stones - which are part of my bedrock, "I am the True Vine - My Father is the husbandman."
I am to plant, water and weed. I can't make anything grow. Oh yes, I am also called to feed, but I know and I think that I know that you know that He does most of the feeding, with or without me. When I think of the word "True" - I think of these concepts -- "faithful, straight, dependable, bankable, reliable" The Vine is a living plant that grows along the ground. If you pay close attention, a vine will often have root systems that not only originate from the original seed, but they also will shoot roots down into the ground in various other places to get the nutrients that they need. The vine crawls to get the sun, the water and the nutrients that it needs. The Vine fights to live and to give life and will stretch to give even more life. I love that about the Vine. And as the Vine crawls the Husbandman will steer it clear of rocky, thorny and sunless ground. I love that about the Gardener. I love that about the caretaker of the Vine and when a branch of the Vine finds itself on the wrong kind of ground and insists on trying to flourish there, the Husbandman may even take out the pruning sheers. He thinks, "Let's not waste any of this valuable life flowing from the source. We have to bear fruit. We don't have the luxury of just sitting out on the rock while the other parts of the Vine produce." As I consider Jesus, which I try to do as often as I breathe, I think of those that God has sent to me. It's funny because as I consider the Vine, the branches aren't grafted - they grow out from the seed -- through the original root to the roots, then the original shoot to the shoots to the branches, the leaves and then the buds and the fruit. The Fruit comes from the originator. It doesn't come from anywhere else. The bedrock thought here is simple. "LIft up My Name. I will draw all men." Still, that doesn't get the meaning for me. "Out of the heart, flow the issues of life." I am hearing an ancient thought rumbling in my Spirit. I have always known this and it is sitting in me like Old Wine that is New Wine to me. The Ancient One who is new every morning brooded over the waters. He breathed and light was. From Him all that is came to be and is, and is coming to be. He is the beginning. He has no beginning. In our efforts to understand the Alef and the Tov, we have added words like beginning and end, first and last. Why is that? Because as my daughter would say when she was but eight or nine years old, "Dad, forever gives me a headache." When I would speak of eternity or infinity or forever she would squint her eyes in contemplation trying to comprehend. She was trying her best to understand/fathom forever. Imagine a tree growing forever. It seems unnatural - even dangerous - overwhelming at the very least. Danielle would think like that. A tree growing up and out of the earth's atmosphere? It couldn't. Why? Because, just as the larger trees were taking up the sun next to the two trees that I know as Danielle's trees - causing them to be skinny and tall and leaning to the right - at least from the vantage of my porch - all things created effect all things created because in fact we are related to all things created because the originator is one and that one holds all things together - even though we don't want to think that. The trees eat carbon dioxide and produce oxygen. People absorb/eat/need oxygen and produce carbon dioxide. The earth orbits the sun while the moon orbits the earth and Jupiter pulls on the earth keeping it from being sucked into the sun. It's a funny thing, how things work together. Yah created and I am here. I am who I am and where I am doing what I am doing because of the influences and factors of so many, near and far. It just seems to go on and on forever. And this is the beauty of the Vine for it is my life source and because I know that, I nestle in to do my part, because doing my part - not trying to be Jupiter - when I am just part of the Vine makes things work for me. I am to stay attached and crawl. I am to grow and to produce leaves, buds and fruit. I am to find good ground and put down roots should the Husbandman guide me to the good ground. I am to race through the thorns and over the rocks to find more good ground, to put forth more of my shoot to produce more fruit - trusting the Husbandman and taking my life from the True Vine -- all the while cognizant of the other shoots and branches growing nearby as they, too, do what I am doing. It is all part of a great plan. In me is life and that life flows out from me. Ha. In me is life because that life first flowed into me. That's more like it. I have received, therefore, I give. "To whom much is given, much is required." "Freely you have received. Freely give." "There were three men that were each given talents. One was given five, the other two and the third was given but one. They were told that one day the giver of these talents would return for the talents and the growth that would be produced from these gifts. He did return and when he did, he was very clear. If you don't produce multiplicative growth, you will lose even that which was originally given to you." With these bedrock truths I meditate and imagine the shoot that flows from me. It's hard for me to imagine that I have that much influence or that much life. My bedrock teaching calls that life - eternal - and as I contemplate eternity it takes me past my understanding to a deeper level and that level is beyond understanding to the place called giving/trust/growing/life. Pick the word that best sits with your place and allow it to allow you to take your place, where you can be blissfully satisfied with your place in His plan. And as you rest there, press in the direction of the source of your life while reaching out over rocks and thorns to the place where you are to be - in the light, bearing fruit - being you. For now, I have to stop as my family is getting up to spend time with me. It is time to do what I am learning to do.