So.... I had a thought.

When our oldest Grandson was about preschool age, he came over to our house for a visit one day. We had an orange tree in the backyard and it had just stormed at our house. The wind had knocked many of the tiny baby oranges off the tree. Nevertheless, our Grandson had fun wandering around picking up all the tiny little oranges and collecting them in a container. Some were black, some were green, and some were even orange, but none of them were bigger than the size of a quarter.

After collecting them all, he looked at them with pride and was telling me all about his oranges. Finally, he said with his chest puffed out, “One day they will be big oranges. “Well Buddy,“ I explained, “these oranges will never get big. Do you see the oranges still on the tree? Those oranges will get big, but these oranges aren’t connected to the tree anymore. And if they aren’t connected to the tree, they can’t grow.”

It made me think of Samson in Judges chapter 16. This part of the story occurs when Delilah has cut off Sampson’s hair and he doesn’t know it yet. She wakes him by yelling, “Sampson, the Philistines are upon you!” He thinks, “No problem! I’ll go defeat them as I have before.” Then the Scripture tells us, “but he did not know that Yahweh had left him.”

Is there anything sadder? He’s clueless – and helpless! He’s taken the anointing hand of the Lord for granted to such a degree that now he can’t even tell that the Lord’s hand has been lifted from him.

How often are we like that? Going through life thinking we’ve got it together and not realizing that, because we have let go of our Abba’s hand, we are wandering, about to be blinded because we thought we could wing it on our own. In John chapter 15, Jesus talks about being the True Vine and that Father is the Vinedresser. He says that whoever abides in Him will bring forth fruit: for apart from Him we can do nothing.

When we aren’t connected to the Vine we cannot bear fruit. We may still look like a branch, but in reality, we are withering and unfruitful. In a vineyard all the branches of the vine grow directly from the vine itself. A branch cannot piggyback off another branch. It must be connected to the true vine.

So, it is with us and our Lord. We must stay connected to the Vine alone and resist the temptation to just try to get our nutrients from another branch. Direct connection to the Vine is the only way to grow.

In fact, at pruning season, branches are cut back till there’s only a little nub left. For nearly a year, the branches “abide” in the vine. The vine then grows all around the nub of a branch, pumping it full of nutrients until, in the growth season, the branch suddenly shoots out with growth and then with fruit.

We need to stay abiding in the Vine. We need to stay in the place of allowing the Lord to fill us with what is of Him and removing all that is not of Him. Only then can we be truly connected and truly fruitful.