Holding on to The Vine
My New Year’s message was an analogy about the tomatoes in my garden. This morning, as I picked those beautiful, healthy, nutritious, and life-giving fruits, I was suddenly inspired to write a sermon showing the connection of the fruit and the vine. First, here is my 2026 message:
“HAPPY 2026 EVERYONE! A new year and a new chance to make your life everything you ever dreamed it would be. We don’t know the day we will arrive on earth or the day we will leave. We don’t choose our parents, our childhood, or many events that occur in our lives, but we can ALWAYS choose to live with more gratitude, grace & love.
As I picked tomatoes this morning, I got to thinking some of us are bigger, some medium, and some small in size. Some of us are ripe (matured and reflective of our lives—serving others), while others are still green who will (hopefully) ripen and grow with time, experience, and perspective.
Some are attached to a vine (with other tomatoes), clinging onto others hoping they will create the life they want (they won’t), and others are a single entity with empty branches still attached to the vine, reflecting the “baggage” of hurt, trauma, and bad experiences we haven’t let go… This is the time to let go and LIVE!
Some aren’t even tomatoes that fit in with the crowd, but are more like these banana peppers, which look and act very differently. However, EVERYONE has an opportunity every minute, hour, day, week, and month to make 2026 the life you deserve and desire. That is my fervent wish for all of you: 2026 is YOUR best year ever, despite your situation when you left 2025 behind.”
To fully understand WHY you need to be permanently attached to a vine, you must understand the PURPOSE of a vine in the development and growth process of “fruit.” Since the Bible repeats we are to be fruitful at all times, it suggests we MUST be attached to a vine in order to receive the proper nutrients and prevent disease from infecting the fruit on the vine.
AI says, “The purpose of the tomato plant vine is to SUPPORT THE GROWTH of the plant, allowing it to REACH the sun LIGHT (Jesus says, “I am the Light”) and efficiently PRODUCE FRUIT. This support is REQUIRED to prevent damage and disease.” As you can read, the VINE is crucial to the survival and reproduction of the fruit. It feeds, supports, sustains, and prevents damage to the fruit. One reading of the Bible will tell you “fruit, vines, and preventing/healing damage” is critical to God when discussing His people.
In my encouraging New Year’s message, I mentioned that some people cling to a vine with other tomatoes on it. They think those tomatoes/people are going to nourish and sustain them, but are often disappointed and left floundering. Other people are a single tomato holding desperately onto a vine that has branches, but no other tomatoes. This means they had expected other people to hold onto the vine as fervently as they do, and supporting them, but those humans fell away, leaving that person alone (empty vine) and often seeking comfort in other secular ways and through other humans, completely forgetting our lifeblood is Jesus!
Still others cling to the vine, refusing to let go even under the pressure of trying to be picked off the vine. They tenaciously CLING to the vine regardless of the pull away from it. That is the “tomato” we should all seek to become. Even if we desire other people to be our nourishment and support system, we need to be able to lean on God as our ONLY support when life feels impossible, and people fall away.
Jesus is extremely clear that He IS The Vine. Away from Him, you will lose your lifeblood and wither away. While many people don’t even understand the analogy of being attached to the vine, Christians, who know better, still allow themselves to be separated from the vine, thus unable to bear fruit and with no life-giving source to keep them safe, happy, peaceful, and fruitful for the Kingdom of God.
John 15:5 “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.”
In John 14:6, Jesus declares, "I am the way, the truth, and the life," emphasizing His unique role as the path to God, the embodiment of divine truth, and the source of eternal life.
In these two scripture verses, Jesus makes it VERY CLEAR that HE and He alone is the only nutrition, leader, and example we need to lead the life God has planned for us. Although fellowship is highly recommended, the purpose of being with others who are fervently seeking God as The Way is to keep you on the righteous path. It is not so they can console you, support you, and be your source of strength during the storms of life! They can assist you, but once you LEAN on them (humans) and consider God second to your belief that humans are able to carry you through rough waters, you have walked away from your true support system. You will find yourself alone, despondent, frustrated, and disappointed.
These “smothering and dependent” emotions further repel people from you and your situation because they don’t have the power, strength, and abilities to sustain your life. They are just hurting and suffering humans like you. I would never lean on one of my tomato vines expecting it to hold me up. My tomato vines must be shored up with tomato cages, stakes, and wire. Leaning on them would ensure I topple over and get hurt even worse! God PROMISES He will be your strength and healing:
Proverbs 3:5-6 "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths."
Isaiah 41:10 "Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand."
Psalm 55:22 "Cast your burden on the Lord, and He will sustain you; He will never permit the righteous to be moved."
Psalm 37:5 "Commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him, and He will act."
2 Corinthians 12:9 "But He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in (your) weakness.' Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me."
Psalm 147:3 “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.”
Binds up their wounds refers to the act of healing and caring for both physical and emotional injuries. It suggests that God, like a compassionate physician, tends to our afflictions with care and brings complete and lasting healing, rather than just a temporary fix. This emphasizes God's active involvement in restoring those who are suffering, assuring us of His compassion and unconditional love. WE END UP RESTORED, not just a temporary band-aid fix that falls off, leaving scars and open wounds!
Jesus is the ONLY VINE that can sustain your life and enable you to continue to grow. If you hold on to Him as if your life depends on it (because your eternal life does, as does your quality of life while you are on earth), you will experience the fullness of life that God has planned for you.
I will end with Jeremiah 29:11-12: “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.” AMEN. Love and blessings, Lisa ><>
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