itsawonderfilledlife

Just days ago the calendar was announcing the beginning of autumn. For weeks, the moon and all of nature were already offering us sneak peaks in the season that is now upon us.

The days come to their dark end much earlier, the sun has slowed her morning rise in the skies, there is a distinctive chill in the air each morning, the gardens are slowing in their production of vegetables and the deciduous trees are showing their fall colours.

I mourn the end of summer’s heat, yet I delight in the variation of colors on the trees. Their twisting and swaying in he air, as they cascade from branches to earth creates a peaceful, dreamy contentment within.

The trees seem so eager to let their foliage fall from their life source, as if separating from them was life-giving.

What do we hold on to that, on first appearance, might be beautiful? What if those things of beauty were actually strangling the life-breath from us, keeping us from maturing fully?

love of self?
dependence on another (above all else)?
desire for things?
working overtime?
time online?

The example of the autumn trees is that they bear beautiful leaves, then release them. It is not until months later that beauty re-emerges, in the form of spring buds and green leaves. All the while, growth is occurring throughout the entire tree, for the leaves, that have been sapping (love the pun?) it’s energy, have fallen. This, cyclical, process continues because that which is so attractive (but temporary) gets released, making room for new growth.

What if we released and reduced our hold on the temporary things that draw us in, taking our time and all other resources from that which has eternal value? From that which promotes growth?

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other.

John 15:1-17