true vine

The Value of Zero

Posted on by Betsy

A young mother was teaching her preschool age son about the value of zero by showing him apples. “If you have zero apples and I give you two, how many apples do you have?” “Two!” he exclaimed. “Yes, and if you have two apples and I take away two apples, how many apples do you have?” He frowned. “No apples?” “Right,” she replied. “Two take away two is zero.” He went off to play for a while and came back about ten minutes later. “But Mama, ” he said with some urgency, “why did you take away all my apples?”

Why, indeed?

I wonder if this is how the people of Israel felt about the Promised Land. God led them out of slavery in Egypt and into the Promised Land after clearing away all the Canaanites so that Israel could prosper. Like a vine, they had been transplanted there to take deep root and flourish for many years:

Psalm 80 (Common English Bible)

8You brought a vine out of Egypt.
    You drove out the nations and planted it.
9 You cleared the ground for it;
    then it planted its roots deep, filling the land.
10 The mountains were covered by its shade;
    the mighty cedars were covered by its branches.
11 It sent its branches all the way to the sea;
    its shoots went all the way to the Euphrates River.

This is one of several instances in the Old Testament when Israel is referred to as a vine (see Deuteronomy 32: 32-33, Isaiah 5:1, Jeremiah 2:21, and Hosea 10:1). Jesus referred to himself as the True Vine in John 10:15. (Read my devotional on this passage here.) Psalm 80 begins with a celebration of the power of the vine’s growth, but it’s dominance over the land is short-lived.

The vine’s devastation began with the fall of the southern Kingdom in 586BC, and soon the northern kingdom would fall in 721BC. This psalm is written between the two events, and we can feel the anguish of the psalmist as he watched his beloved Israel plucked up, torn down, and scattered far away:

12 So why have you now torn down its walls
    so that all who come along can pluck its fruit,
13     so that any boar from the forest can tear it up,
    so that the bugs can feed on it?

The great sin of the nation caused this to happen. They had turned their backs on God and worshipped false idols. Because of their apostasy, God allowed invading nations to come and take them from plentiful abundance to absolute zero. The vine that had been planted by God’s own hand was chopped down into nothing.

14 Please come back, God of heavenly forces!
    Look down from heaven and perceive it!
Attend to this vine,
15     this root that you planted with your strong hand,
    this son whom you secured as your very own.
16 It is burned with fire. It is chopped down.
    They die at the rebuke coming from you.
17 Let your hand be with the one on your right side—
    with the one whom you secured as your own—
18     then we will not turn away from you!

The psalmist reminds us where we can go when our sin has left us with nothing and our life has taken on the quality of zero. Just as he reminded God of the fact that God had loved Israel enough to call them his own, he reminds us that we, too can approach the throne of grace in humble repentance and ask for restoration.

Revive us so that we can call on your name.
19     Restore us, Lord God of heavenly forces!
    Make your face shine so that we can be saved!

Only God could revive the nation, and only God can revive us. He is the Shepard of Israel who can replant and restore the vine in us. God’s deliverance comes through his son, Jesus Christ, the True Vine. We are Christ’s branches and we bear witness to the strength of God’s forgiving grace. When we come before him and ask to be saved, God forgives us. After all, the True Vine was born to take away the sins of the world.

And that is the best take away of all.

Sunshine Vine by Michelle Robertson

Bee Still

Posted on by Betsy

When it comes to gardening, I have a real “black thumb.” I don’t come by it honestly. My Dad was a terrific “green-thumb” gardener and I grew up eating fresh vegetables from his back garden. Plants die easily in my care, including silk ones. You think I’m kidding. I received a gift of a beautiful plant in a ceramic holder a few months ago. I put it on my coffee table and was so grateful that the giver had chosen an artificial plant for me. A few weeks later I returned from a long trip to discover that the leaves had turned black. I can’t even tell real plants from fake ones.

I have a raised planter at the side of my house that I was determined would hold some vegetable plants this year. I make this determination every year. Friends have built a new house on that side, and so my garden of weeds is making me a little self-conscious, as my new neighbors will be able to look down into it from their upper deck. I read that we shouldn’t tend our gardens until the temperature is above 50 degrees, so as to not disturb winter pollinators who take refuge in dormant gardens. The world’s bee population is being decimated by insecticides and climate change, and we all need to do our part.

When the temps rose, I went out to really study it and see about taking down all the weeds so I could plant some tomato plants in their place. Lo and behold, my “garden” of weedy wild flowers is full of bees. I have decided to just neaten it up by trimming the edges, and I may put a sign in the middle that says “Bee Garden.” Perhaps the kindest thing I can do is just let the bees have it…I don’t think I can kill them if I just leave them alone. If I can’t grow plants, maybe I can grow bees!

In our passage from the fifteenth chapter of John, we see the image of God as a Master Vineyard Keeper. He lovingly removes unproductive branches and trims the remaining ones to produce more fruit.

John 15 (Common English Bible)

15 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vineyard keeper. 2 He removes any of my branches that don’t produce fruit, and he trims any branch that produces fruit so that it will produce even more fruit. 3 You are already trimmed because of the word I have spoken to you. 

People-branches are trimmed by the word of God. When we read scripture and allow it to take root in our lives, our behavior changes accordingly. We stop doing unproductive things and engage in activities that grow our faith and pollinate the world with God’s message.

4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. A branch can’t produce fruit by itself, but must remain in the vine. Likewise, you can’t produce fruit unless you remain in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, then you will produce much fruit. Without me, you can’t do anything. 

John reminds us that apart from God, we can’t do anything. Did you get that? Apart from God, you can’t do anything. I know people who are very proud of their self-reliance, as though everything they have achieved and everything they possess is by their own hand. Yes, hard work and perseverance are part of success, but apart from God, we have nothing. God calls us to remain in him and he will cause us to produce much fruit.

6 If you don’t remain in me, you will be like a branch that is thrown out and dries up. Those branches are gathered up, thrown into a fire, and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you. 8 My Father is glorified when you produce much fruit and in this way prove that you are my disciples.

Today is a good day to be humble and thank our Master Gardener for everything that he provides. Our true vine is our source of all things! Let us take root in his word. Thanks be to God.

Sound Roots and Branches by Lainie Reed