The dahlia and the vine

In my garden is one perfect dahlia.

It came in a mixed bag of summer bulbs from RHS Wisley and was the only tuber in the selection. I have had no joy growing dahlias in the past as the slugs and snails have gobbled up any fresh green growth long before flowering.

This time it was going to be different, and it was, but not as I expected.

For whatever reason, it grew very long and leggy, too spindly to hold itself up and was scaffolded with a cane and lengths of string. It continued skywards and began to droop, the stem now upwards of four feet! The stem zigzags back and forth held by the cane and some inner strength that somehow allows it to hold up its magnificent bloom.

Lectio 365 has been looking at the Names of God in recent weeks and I was brought once again to reflect on John 15 where Jesus tells us the He is the Vine and that we should abide in him alone if we want to bear fruit.

It took me back to my dahlia. It’s strayed way farther from the tuber (vine) and consequently is weaker than it could be but it’s hung on to the connection, even though the stem is bent and bowed and the crowning glory is this single perfect, radiant bloom. Without its root this would be impossible.

We all want to bear fruit but I know that I don’t always remember how crucial the abiding in the vine bit really is. Sometimes I lose the connection in the doing, when the being is the important thing. I’m being Martha when I need to be Mary.

Despite this, even a tiny misshapen connection can still be a conduit for fruit – thirty, sixty, one hundred-fold. In this case there is only one dahlia but it is shining out in beauty for all to see, glorifying its Maker and doing what it was created to do. A lesson to me every time I look out into the garden.

While writing this I was reminded of another the little elder tree by the River Aire that was ‘abiding’ – by being a tree, as Thomas Merton says, in a blog post I wrote several years ago in my Lessons from the Trees project. If you are interested, you can find it here.

Lessons from the Trees – Week 37 – Grapes and Figs

Now before anyone tells me that a vine is not a tree, I know!! But I wanted to think about them because vines play such a significant part in Scripture, from a real cluster of grapes so big it had to be carried on a pole by two men (Numbers 13:23) to a symbol for God’s people (who are often referred to as a vine, and sometimes a fig tree), for example:

‘I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the first-ripe in the fig-tree in the beginning’ (Hosea 9:10).

‘Don’t be afraid, O land. 
Be glad now and rejoice,
for the Lord has done great things.
Don’t be afraid, you animals of the field,
for the wilderness pastures will soon be green.
The trees will again be filled with fruit; 
fig trees and grapevines will be loaded down once more.’ (Joel 2:21-22)

‘You brought us from Egypt like a grapevine;
you drove away the pagan nations and transplanted us into your land.
You cleared the ground for us,
and we took root and filled the land…

Take care of this grapevine
that you yourself have planted,
this son you have raised for yourself.’  (Psalm 80:8-9 & 14-15).

©Debbie McLeod – Banstead Woods, Surrey – September 2018.

Deuteronomy 8:8-9 describes the land God promised his people when they left Egypt as ‘a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, a land where you may eat bread without scarcity, where you will lack nothing.’ God was lavish and generous when inviting his children into a land of plenty, of bounty, where they would have all they needed.

The Jews of Jesus’ time would be very familiar with this symbolism and all the ups and downs of their history described through this imagery in Scripture. Jesus himself used it in Mark 12:1-12 when he told the Parable of the Tenants – a none too flattering prophetic story about the way the Kingdom would be extended to include the Gentiles – in a way that infuriated religious leaders enough that they wanted to have him arrested.

When Jesus came and described himself as the True Vine it would have been difficult for the Jews to understand – how could the symbol for a nation be used for one person?  But in describing himself as the True Vine, Jesus is portraying himself as the source of life, faithful and eternal.

John 15 begins:

 “I am the true Vine, and my Father is the Gardener. “

“Yes, I am the Vine; you are the branches. Whoever lives in me and I in him shall produce a large crop of fruit. For apart from me you can’t do a thing. If anyone separates from me, he is thrown away like a useless branch, withers, and is gathered into a pile with all the others and burned. But if you stay in me and obey my commands, you may ask any request you like, and it will be granted! ⁸ My true disciples produce bountiful harvests. This brings great glory to my Father.’ (John 15: 5-8 NLT)

©’Branches’ – Adam Thomas Steer – 2018

I once heard someone ask, “Where does the vine stop and the branches start?”

Good question!  It seems to me that there is no marked delineation.  Our life flows from the root of the True Vine into the branches (us) which can only thrive because of the energy coming from the root.

Other translations of the Bible use the word ‘abide’ – an Old English word signifying progressively to “await,” “remain,” “lodge,” “sojourn,” “dwell,” “continue,” “endure” – full of rich meaning. Source: https://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionary/abide

This gives a sense of long-lasting, a permanence of togetherness which gives life.  It reminds me of the verses in Colossians 3  –  ‘For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.’ (v.3&4)  Our lives are inextricably entwined with that of Christ if we have committed to follow him.

This week, spend time thinking about what ‘abiding’ with Christ might look like in your life.

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