Love Trees
By Whitnee Sand
“Remain in me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me.” John 15:4-5
A question - Have you ever seen a broken tree branch on the ground, with living, thriving, growing, delicious, good to eat fruit on it? Not really, that isn’t a usual thing that you would see. If some tree branches got broken off, at best, the fruit would stop growing and ripening. At worst, the fruit would take a nasty fall to the ground, get gross and mushy, and start to have bugs crawling in it. Its growth would be completely stunted and it would quickly lose all hope of being good to eat.
You can also tell what kind of tree it is by the type of fruit that it produces. No one goes up to an orange tree, knowing exactly what an orange is, and looks at the fruit coming off its branches, and says with sincerity, “I found a pear tree!” If they did, they were probably being silly or someone needs to go back and teach them about the different fruits again.
What comes out of a person, their words, actions, and behaviors, is always in direct correlation with where their hearts are. If words, actions, and behaviors of unkindness, hatred, and evil flow from a person, you can know that their heart is also in an unloving, evil place. And vice versa, if words, actions, and behaviors of love, kindness, and Christ-likeness flow from a person, it’s clear that their hearts have been marinating in the presence of the God who is love. This is what the Bible refers to as a person’s fruit, described both here in John 15, as well as in Matthew 12:33-37.
Psalm 1:1-3 says,
“How happy is the one who does not
walk in the advice of the wicked
or stand in the pathway with sinners
or sit in the company of mockers!
Instead, his delight is in the Lord’s instruction,
and he meditates on it day and night.
He is like a tree planted beside flowing streams
that bears its fruit in its season
and whose leaf does not wither.
Whatever he does prospers.”
The way that we remain as people who produce fruit of love is by being planted by the Lord, and remaining in Him, as a branch remains in a vine. It is a continuous heart posture and lifestyle that we get to choose, but in all actuality, it is so much more simple than what our hearts can make it out to be. It’s moment-by-moment decisions to set our gaze, hearts, and minds back on Jesus and allowing Him to be the one who transforms our hearts.
Just as a fruit branch is not striving to produce more and better fruit, it simply is because that’s what it was made to do and it’s staying connected to its life source, the vine. So is the same with us. When we remain connected to our life source, Jesus, more and more fruit of love is naturally produced, because that’s just exactly what we were made for.
A question - Have you ever seen a broken tree branch on the ground, with living, thriving, growing, delicious, good to eat fruit on it? Not really, that isn’t a usual thing that you would see. If some tree branches got broken off, at best, the fruit would stop growing and ripening. At worst, the fruit would take a nasty fall to the ground, get gross and mushy, and start to have bugs crawling in it. Its growth would be completely stunted and it would quickly lose all hope of being good to eat.
You can also tell what kind of tree it is by the type of fruit that it produces. No one goes up to an orange tree, knowing exactly what an orange is, and looks at the fruit coming off its branches, and says with sincerity, “I found a pear tree!” If they did, they were probably being silly or someone needs to go back and teach them about the different fruits again.
What comes out of a person, their words, actions, and behaviors, is always in direct correlation with where their hearts are. If words, actions, and behaviors of unkindness, hatred, and evil flow from a person, you can know that their heart is also in an unloving, evil place. And vice versa, if words, actions, and behaviors of love, kindness, and Christ-likeness flow from a person, it’s clear that their hearts have been marinating in the presence of the God who is love. This is what the Bible refers to as a person’s fruit, described both here in John 15, as well as in Matthew 12:33-37.
Psalm 1:1-3 says,
“How happy is the one who does not
walk in the advice of the wicked
or stand in the pathway with sinners
or sit in the company of mockers!
Instead, his delight is in the Lord’s instruction,
and he meditates on it day and night.
He is like a tree planted beside flowing streams
that bears its fruit in its season
and whose leaf does not wither.
Whatever he does prospers.”
The way that we remain as people who produce fruit of love is by being planted by the Lord, and remaining in Him, as a branch remains in a vine. It is a continuous heart posture and lifestyle that we get to choose, but in all actuality, it is so much more simple than what our hearts can make it out to be. It’s moment-by-moment decisions to set our gaze, hearts, and minds back on Jesus and allowing Him to be the one who transforms our hearts.
Just as a fruit branch is not striving to produce more and better fruit, it simply is because that’s what it was made to do and it’s staying connected to its life source, the vine. So is the same with us. When we remain connected to our life source, Jesus, more and more fruit of love is naturally produced, because that’s just exactly what we were made for.
1 Comment
that's a beautiful reflection on that passage mr.sand
can you please tell me
What are some practical steps we can take to ensure that our words, actions, and behaviors align with the love, kindness, and Christ-likeness that we desire to bear as fruit in our lives?