I was reading in John 15:5 today. ‘I am the vine, you are the branches,’ Jesus told us and those words jumped out at me. ‘I am a branch’. It is my identity, an identity full of healing truth.
I am a branch. When I stop rushing around being busy and just reflect on what that means it seems amazing. Branches are beautiful because of what they carry. The twigs, the leaves, the blossom and the fruit all stem from the branches. Their role is supremely important.
On a Summer’s day I love to lie on the grass under a tree and watch the branches waving gently against the sky. They look so strong and beautiful. They are all shapes, lengths and degrees of thickness. Some swoop gracefully down to the ground, others raise themselves to the sky. They twine into and alongside one another, each part of the whole but totally unique in itself. The one unifying thing is that they are rooted into the tree itself. As Jesus points out, unless the branches remain in the tree they will wither and die but in the tree is where they belong. Each is important, even vital to that tree’s life and future. Without the branches there can be no fruit, no life, no growth, no propagation.
I am a branch. I belong. It doesn’t matter if I look different to other branches as no two branches are meant to be the same. I belong. I’ve been chosen to carry and support the beautiful splendour of Jesus. The fruit of His love in this world is destined to be carried and brought to birth through me and all other branches. I am a branch, giving shape and majesty to this tree. It doesn’t matter if I am a young branch or a hoary old one, if I am long or short, gracious or stumpy, smooth or jagged, I am part of that tree and jesus’ life flows through me. I belong.
All the other branches belong too. How do I see those other branches? Sometimes I fear them because I’m seeing myself as lacking compared to them. Sometimes I feel rather jealous of their beauty. Sometimes in my attitude I’m sticking out of that tree on my own but from Jesus’ perspective, I’m connected and entwined with all the other branches because it’s together that the tree’s beauty is fully revealed. Every branch is significant. Every branch matters and belongs.
Jesus tells me to ‘remain in Him.’ I can spend so much time feeling less than others but if I nurture those feelings of inferiority I’m weakening my connection to the tree. Why would I do that? Why do I focus so easily on the negatives, the things I feel I am not when Jesus has so many amazing things to tell me that I am? That he’s made me to be and released me into being through His death and resurrection? Will I choose to believe and live in what He says and let go of everything else? Why ever not?
I am a branch, a beautiful, powerful life bearing branch. I am chosen. I have been grafted in for a purpose. I carry His beauty and through me His life is propagated. I am entwined with others. I may feel I am on my own but I am not. I am within that tree and the tree is within me. Together with the other branches we will keep growing, keep stretching our arms upwards to the sky and downwards to embrace and draw in those around us.
I am a branch and I must never forget that. It’s not my job to make myself perfect. God has already connected me into the tree and He is at work in me every day to tend and prune me. Those of my friends who love gardening, I see how real their care is for their plants. God is caring for me constantly. Its His desire that I stay connected. I don’t have to twist His arm to persuade Him to let me bear fruit, its already what He wants and has planned for me.
I am not a nobody. I need not live in shame. I am a chosen branch, a carrier of Jesus life and beauty. Even in the storms I am held safe in Him. I am held by His love and the more I accept and believe that, the more secure I grow. He will never let go of me and through His amazing power I will grow ever stronger as I cling into Him.
May we all know the encouragement and joy of being a branch in and of Jesus.
Tracy
