A word from a cookie …

The meme to the right is one of my favorites when it comes to “meme humor.”

Also because there’s some wisdom in the humor … some people actually give credence to what’s printed on the little slips of paper ensconced in “fortune cookies.” It can’t be a happy experience relying on a cookie to impart wisdom to you.

After all, it can’t help you, it’s just a cookie!

Oddly enough, it was this meme I suddenly recalled when reading through the Gospel according to John, chapter 15, earlier this morning. If the portion of this passage of scripture would have been a meme, it would have been a picture of a branch or stick, saying something like, “I can do nothing on my own, for I am just a branch.”

That really is the gist of the message Jesus has for us:

“I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more. You have already been pruned and purified by the message I have given you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me. Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing,” John 15:1-5.

Expecting to find fruit on a branch or stick that is unattached to the life-giving vine is like expecting wisdom from a cookie — it’s not gonna happen!

And expecting our lives to be fruitful untethered from the Life Giver — Jesus Christ — is also an exercise in futility because “…For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me …” and “… For apart from me you can do nothing.”

Want a fruitful life? Remain in Christ. In fact, every “branch” connected to the “true grapevine” WILL produce fruit!

“… Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit …”

And when you think enough fruit has been produced in your life through Christ, then what?

“… my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more …”

Unconnected from Jesus, we’re just sticks. Connected to the “true grapevine” and our lives know the joy of fruitfulness.

Don’t choose to be a stick, stay connected to Jesus.

Scotty