A number of years ago,
as our daughter and her family were packing for a weekend trip,
she overheard in the next room,
four year old Penelope, saying to her little brother Silas,
who was two at the time,
“Silas, we don’t have much room in the suitcase.
We’ll have to leave your pants behind.”
I am the vine and you are the branches, says Jesus.
Or in the case of an older sibling to a younger one,
sometimes it is a bit more like—
I am the vine and you are a branch
and we don’t have room for your pants.
The truth is, we all sometimes think that we are the vine.
We designate everyone else as mere branches.
Surely the world spins around me, doesn’t it?
Surely all the room in the suitcase is reserved with my name on it, right?
Sorry, we will have to leave your pants behind.
We live in a time and a place where there is enormous competition
to claim the title of being the vine,
to hog all the room in the suitcase,
even if it means there is no room for anyone else.
There are those who will tell us what a mighty and important vine they are
and how impressed we should be.
But money and power and the plethora of lies
that are spun around us on a daily basis
will never transform a branch into the vine.
Because the gospel tells a different story.
Walk humbly.
Do justice.
Love deeply and widely.
I am the vine and you are the branches, says Jesus.
Remember what is true:
your unbreakable connection to the life-giving vine.
The unconditionally loving vine.
And don’t worry.
God can fit everyone’s pants into the suitcase.
Always a good one! Who needs pants?????
Love this and all your writing!