We are all Branches--by Linden Malki

"Fruit" is another example of how we see God at work, both in His provision for His creation, and in our growth as His children.  The variety of plants His world, and the many of them that provide fruit as food for His creatures, show us God's creative and artistic abundance.  Not only are there thousands of different kinds plants that bear fruit, but within each kind there are different varieties, and even on plants of the same variety the fruits vary in size, sweetness, ripening time, and flavor. For example, experts on wine can identify not only the variety of grapes that it was made of, but the vineyard where they grew, and even the year of the harvest. Another interesting thing about fruit (and other plants as well) is that branches of one plant can be grafted into another plant of a similar type.  When I was a kid, my dad was a tree person (we had 18 trees on a standard city lot), and the folks canned fruit every summer. We had an apple tree with six varieties of apples, and a plum tree with four kinds of plums, as well as the pear and peach and cherry and mulberry trees, as well as non-fruit trees. Trees are amazing!

There are records of grafting grapevines and other plants in Jewish and Greek sources going back to about 400 BC. St Paul, in Romans 11, uses grafting as a metaphor of the complex relationships between Jews and Gentiles, speaking to a community that included both. He builds on the teaching of Jesus that we see in John 15, which speaks of His people as branches on a grapevine, which only bears fruit if it remains solidly attached to the vine; and if it breaks off or doesn't produce, it will be discarded.  And even healthy branches are watched and pruned, so that the maximum amount of water and nutrients go to the growing fruit. Paul carries the metaphor into the question of the relationship between the Jewish community and the growing church with its increasing Gentile component. He reassures the Jews that they have not been rejected by God; that there has always been a faithful remnant that has preserved the chosen people.  However, he does warn them that if they reject reconciliation, they can be broken off, and others be grafted into their place. And then Paul reminds everyone that that we are all  nourished by the original vine and need to be faithful--which still holds true today.

The image of fruit, in all its variations, is a good reminder that while we may be products of different vines, we are all nourished by the same roots. We may be different varieties, different colors, different flavors, but we all need to strengthen the connection, sprout in our own way and produce the best fruit of the variety we have been created to be.