Thoughts for the Day

Jesus said, 'Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.'

(New Revised Standard Version)

Thoughts

Some years ago I had two corderlyne 'palm' trees showing signs of rot, and had them cut down, one to the ground and one to about three or four metres. That should have been the end of the first one, but I thought the second might regenerate if left. Sure enough this happened, except that the one cut to ground also grew! They are now both extremely healthy shrubs, steadily growing into trees.

However, another incident occurred which was truly amazing. A seed from the original trees lodged itself high up in my neighbour's tree of unknown origin, and started to grow. It doesn't look healthy though! (See picture above).

Jesus teaches us that we need to remain rooted in him. My trees, grew back healthy and strong because their roots were deep. When we continue our relationship with God, we too will remain spiritually healthy, but like the seed in the tree where there is no good soil and the roots are weak we cannot continue to grow properly.

Monday 26th October, follow up thoughts

Lord Jesus,
You taught Your disciples
that they needed to remain rooted in You.
Help us to see that we need
to keep growing our relationship with you,
so that we can remain strong
to face whatever comes our way,
and to continue Your work in the world.
Amen.