Monster Vines

There is something about spring that makes me relish working outside.  Maybe it’s having been cooped up all winter, maybe it’s the sense of starting new things we’ll enjoy all year, but the first decent weather we got this year, I went out and tackled a major yard project.  We have a wonderful clump of black raspberry bushes in a corner of the yard, but have never been able to get to the middle of the clump.  Every year, I would reluctantly have to leave the waste of whatever berries we could not possibly reach.  As I made a path through this circle of bushes, I and my daughter tackled some monsters:  wild grapevines that had taken over the whole area.  Left alone, they would choke out both the berry bushes and a nearby lilac.  The insidious roots had grown as close as possible to the lilac roots, and also throughout the good berry bushes.  Many hours later, most (and I’m hoping all) of those vines are out.  We can now get to both sides of the bushes, and the lilac has a chance to live.  My daughter asked me if we were done with those vines and had gotten them all.  I told her that even though it looked like we got all of them, we would have to continue to fight them every year to keep any we missed underground from taking over again.  People have wild grapevines in their lives.  Sins and bad habits we think we’ve conquered in the past sometimes pop up again unexpectedly.  Many times, they try to grow as close to something good as they can in hopes that we won’t notice or be able to pull them out without harming the good.  We must continually give our lives to God to help us pull out the bad so that we may bear good fruit.  A little evil left alone will try to take over like a wild grapevine.  Good that we are trying to do would be hampered and eventually choked out.  The good news is that small shoots are easier to pull out than old, established monster-vines.  Don’t be surprised to see a few weeds pop up in your life.  We aren’t perfect, and can’t see underground.  God can see into our hearts, and if He brings a “weed” to your attention, by all means pull out the sucker before it takes over!  He has a shovel for those monster-vines, too, and He knows we can’t do it alone.  The Master Gardener will make you flourish when you belong to Him.  No “monster weed” in our life is too much for Him, for He already has the victory, and nothing can tear His children out of His capable hands. 

 

John 15:5 New King James Version (NKJV)  ⁵ “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.

John 16:33 New King James Version (NKJV) ³³ These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will^[a] have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”

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