The Vine



While working in the yard today, I noticed one of our giant bushes looked a little peaked.  In fact, the entire top half of the thing was dead.  Brown.  Beyond help.

What happened?

I knew there were some viney plants at the base of the bush all summer, but didn't think much of them.  A few leaves, a few feet of vine...nothing to worry about.  Besides, this vine had beautiful red berries and delicate purple and yellow blossoms - it was a thing of beauty!


I hadn't paid any attention until the bush was half dead.

So I put on some gloves, reached into bush, and pulled back a few branches to discover the vine was killing the bush!  Now, it may seem silly to you that we hadn't noticed this, but the vine grew invisibly, stealthily, wrapping itself around and around the trunk and branches of the bush until it choked off its life-source.

And why in the world am I telling you about this?

Why would you have any interest in a vine choking a bush in my back yard?

Well, it's like this.

As I was working to pull each vine out, foot by foot, piling them on the ground, I started thinking.

What can I learn from this?  How does this apply to me?

Then I understood:

What could grow in my life undetected until it chokes the life out of me?

What secret sin is growing in my heart without my knowledge?

 "Whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do."  James 1:25.

 I felt like God was telling me - if I continue to look into His Word, the Bible, it will be as if hidden vines are pulled away, one by one, until I am free!

When my husband returned home, I told him about my discovery.  Instead of putting it off, he headed right out with gloves and clippers and attacked the vines, pulling out feet and yards of the stuff that had wound its' way through our bushes.  Hidden deep inside by the trunk and squeezing the life out of the plants.  I loaded up the wheelbarrow again and again, dumping it in our burn pile.  The mound grew and grew - I couldn't believe the amount of parasitic plant we had removed from our hedge!



And so I thought how wonderful it is when you share a problem with a friend or spouse, and instead of letting it pass by the wayside, you attack it together.  Going right to the heart of the matter and getting rid of the stuff that chokes you, that takes away your joy and life, restores it to rights.

How good and pleasant it is to have a friend who cares!

How good it is to know that God is with me no matter what ill I may discover in my life.

So, whether your struggles are easy to spot or unseen, I pray you will have the courage to root out all the bad stuff so you can enjoy your life the way it was meant to be.

Just thought I'd share this word-picture with you.  It has been on my mind this evening.

It is for freedom that Christ has (or will) set you free!!  Galatians 5:1



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