A Lesson in Horticulture

So one weekend this summer, I was hanging out at my aunt and uncle's house for an afternoon. They live on a small farm, and grow a wide variety of vegetables and fruits. Our typical routine involves taking a quick spin around the garden and orchard before we head instead to eat a meal rich with the produce of those two respective plots. On this particular visit, the lesson of the day was on grafting apple trees...

For those like me, unfamiliar with the process, Grafting is the process of taking a shoot from one plant (typically one designed for bearing fruit) and attaching it to another plant (typically one that has sturdy roots). To do this, first you cut the branch which you want to transplant from its source. Then, you cut a cleft in the tree or bush that serves as the root. Inserting the shoot into the cleft, you then bind the "wound" tightly, so that the shoot does not fall out, and so that the nutrients of the tree can be transported to the shoot. As the "wound" heals, the vascular structure and tissues of the two merge, and become one. The nutrients of the tree will then be transported to the shoot. The wound, while completely healed, is visibly evident in the large knob which forms around the graft, where the shoot was literally bound into the root.

The metaphor of the vine and the branches, and the grafting process is used numerous times throughout scripture, as a form of illustration of our relationship with God: He as the vine, we as the branches, which are grafted into his family. As I visited with my aunt and uncle, the visual example of grafting made me look at the metaphor in a slightly different light... My lesson in horticulture struck me with three new realizations:

Lesson number 1: The branches depend on the root for life. The root does not need the branches in order to be sustained. God's work, already begun, does not perish without the in graft of new branches. The root provides the structure, the nutrients, and the means for growth. Without the root, the branch dies. The role of the branch is to produce fruit. This is its only role. It is also the role for which the branch is designed, but it is only completed and made good when the branch is joined to the tree. Romans 11:17-18 tells us as Christians likewise,

"If some of the branches have been broken off, and, you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, do not boast over those branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you."

Again, John 15:5 Jesus tells us, "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing."

Lesson number 2: The branches grafted into the new root must be completely separated from their old root. They cannot be joined to and sustained by both the old and the new. If you try and splice a branch to two roots, the branch will die, because the raw wound will not be fully healed as it is bound to the tree. The nutrients will "leak out" and not produce good fruit. The roots determine the growth of the branch. If you are united to both the world and Christ, you will not grow. You cannot be rooted in both kingdoms. Romans 6:5-6 tells us,

"For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death. But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new ways of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code."

Lesson number 3: The result of the graft is visibly evident in the construct of the branch. At first the graft is most visible in the knob, uniting the branch and the vine. As the months and years progress, the graft is visible in the fruit, as the fruit shows evidence of the fruit. While the branch maintains many of the attributes of its making, over the years, it begins to look more and more like the root. The knob of its graft is still visible, but many years down the road, when the tree is fully mature, the branch begins to look more and more like the tree. Yet the knob remains, as a reminder that the branch was grafted in and remains dependent on the root.

So to with Christians. We grow more and more like the root into which we are planted. If that is the world, then our fruit demonstrates our root. If into Christ, then we are daily being transformed into His likeness. While our sinful nature remains as evidence of our graft (the knob), we anticipate when we will be without the knob, devoid of sinful nature, enveloped in God's glory, always bearing fruit to the glory of God. Revelations 22:2 tells us of the tree of life, which is "..bearing fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse."

This is what we hope for.... and what we were made for. The purpose of the branch is to bear fruit, to the glory of God. We are grafted into a good root. Let us bear fruit as such...