God Grape

Are we producing anything? Jesus asked everyone this question in the Book of John. It mattered because it lets us know if we are matched up, aligned, at one with God.

"Live in me. Make your home in me just as I do in you. In the same way that a branch can't bear grapes by itself but only by being joined to the vine, you can't bear fruit unless you are joined with me."
"I am the Vine, you are the branches. When you're joined with me and I with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant. Separated, you can't produce a thing. Anyone who separates from me is deadwood, gathered up and thrown on the bonfire. But if you make yourselves at home with me and my words are at home in you, you can be sure that whatever you ask will be listened to and acted upon. This is how my Father shows who he is—when you produce grapes, when you mature as my disciples."

John 15:4-8

I love that Jesus lets us know that we need to produce fruit, specifically here - grapes. We can always tell what kind of fruit we are producing by what comes out of us. If I squeeze a grape what do I get? Do I get orange juice? Of course not, I get grape juice because that is whats inside a grape. A grape comes from the vine. An orange comes from the orange tree and plums come from its kind of tree. So the fruit that we produce will let us know where we are connected. If anger, bitterness, hatred, worry, and frustration come out of us are we connected to the loving, creative, caring, beautiful, and abundant source - God? I would say that we are not. God is all the things I just listed there - caring, loving, abundant, compassionate, abundant, creative, expansive - and if we are connected to God then our fruit should be the same. We should produce fruit that is just like what we have come from, just like the grape from the vine.

So what is it that you are producing? Is it like God or is it something opposite? Practice is the key. Notice when you are angry and change your thoughts to loving. Notice when you get frustrated and change your thoughts to allowing. Become a grape. A "God grape" so that when you are squeezed by life the sweetest, tastiest, most desirable juice comes out. People are looking for this kind of fruit in life.

Namaste'