Good Morning Girls has a summer study going through verses each day and reading through the book The Ministry of Motherhood by Sally Clarkson. Our group of girls was started by Casey and has been such an encouragement already.
Today's scripture was John 15:4-5. I read several translations, but my favorite was The Message which read, "Live in me. Make your home in me just as I do in you. In the same way that a branch can't bear grapes by itself but only by being joined to the vine, you can't bear fruit unless you are joined with me. I am the Vine, you are the branches. When you're joined with me and I with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant. Separated, you can't produce a thing."
Christ tells me to live my life, to make my home, in Him, just as He does in me. WHOA. When I think of the many days that I go through life without really meeting with Jesus, and then I see that He has set up home in me, I am so humbled.
I tried to picture this as an earthy relationship because that's what my mind can fathom. I imagine going through a day in which I as a spouse never even make note of Travis's presence. Not because I'm mad or even busy, but because I'm so selfish, proud, and lazy that he just isn't remembered. And when/if he is? Well, fill-in-the-blank is more appealing at the moment. That wouldn't work very long.
Then I transferred that reasoning to how I treat Jesus and how He thinks of me... Maybe the love of my life, the one that I died for, will live in me tomorrow. Maybe then she'll see that life will be produced in her when she's constantly living in me. I will give her life. If she would just remain in me, she will have life in her and through her. I cannot, however, be separated from my Father. I did that once. For her, in fact. I remain in my Father. Without me, she will be lifeless. Fruit cannot be borne out of her without my life.
I'll say this much, I strongly prefer fruit over a dead plant. I so long to be the branch that God can use to show His goodness.
I couldn't help but reflect on something very personal as I read the passage. The periods of my life when I have felt most connected with God and His life-producing, creative work have been my pregnancies. Only God and His holiness can create man. Only He can use His power and creativity to intricately form a body so perfectly and breathe life into it. Not just physical life, but spiritual life, too. And only He can take that sacred life and continue to breathe into it, like with my precious Jack. And only He can hold that child in His arms as the child enters His glory forever, like the 2nd baby I miss so much. I choose to remain in Him because He has allowed something so sacred to occur through me, and He has helped me live through it. I believe that my God will give me that sacred opportunity again. I humbly surrender that to Him because only He can do it. I sure do love being that branch, though. I don't think it's a stretch to compare human life with fruit. After all, one of the first instructions my Father gave man and woman was to be fruitful and multiply. Just a thought.
I read Heaven is for real last week and have been so thankful for it. I won't spoil anything, I promise. You just HAVE to read it! It has made me so excited about Heaven and eternal life. Intrigued, too. More than anything, I was so encouraged. It made me very excited about the day that I'll meet, hug and kiss, and play with my second child, oh glorious day. And talk for hours with my grandmother who right now can't remember me. And, greatest of all, look into the face of my Jesus, see the scars on His hands and feet, and really LIVE in Him!
Today, this new day, I choose to abide, remain, live in Jesus. Only through Him living in me and I in Him will I see true life (spiritually and physically) occur in and through me.
1 comment:
Alison, that was beautiful! Thank you for sharing that!
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