Vine of life

John 15:5; I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

I woke up to the sound of the furnace kicking in this morning. That could mean only one thing: the temperatures had dropped pretty low during the night, making the house with its open windows cold. Once I realized that the furnace was about to start running, I thought, Oh no, my tomatoes! I looked outside my bedroom window. Yes, there was frost on the ground. I guess I’ll be making another trip to the greenhouse to replace my tomato plants.

I had put in a couple of long days at work, and I was tired and preoccupied when I got home late last night. Therefore, I missed the sign – that nip in the evening air that tells us when it’s going to freeze. When we feel it, we go out and cover our plants to save them from destruction.
It’s easy to get distracted and miss what’s important. Sometimes in our preoccupation with “things” and “stuff,” we lose far more important things than tomato plants: relationships, health, peace and balance.

Worst of all, we can lose our intimacy with our Heavenly Father, a kind of spiritual freezing that prevents us from bearing fruit, just like my tomato plants.

So when the distractions of this life start to pull you away from the warmth of the Father’s love, wrap yourself the blanket of His Word. He is the vine that will sustain you through all of life’s cold spells.