Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Abiding in the Vine

Getting the Windex from under the bathroom sink to clean the mirror the other day, I reached past a stored make-up mirror that had been there so long I hardly noticed it. I'd bought it a long time ago at a sale, then discovered I couldn't make the hinged mirror stay in place. This time though, I saw two screws with wide heads at the side that maybe Howard could tighten with a screwdriver. Then I noticed there were two holes in the base. This thing was supposed to be attached to the wall!

My husband tightened the screws, and the mirror, though still movable, held firm instead of collapsing as the arms bent. He fastened it to the wall beside the bathroom mirror and asked if the light worked. "I don't know," I said, "the cord is too short to reach the outlet on the other side of the medicine cabinet." Wait, this was a coiled, stretchy cord. Maybe it would reach over the top of the cabinet. It did, and now I have a beautiful, adjustable magnifying mirror that lights up! Just what I always wanted! And to think it was under the sink all along!

Last week on Wednesday night at church we were studying John 15 about the relationship of believers to Christ in Jesus's teaching of the Vine and the branches. In verse 5 Jesus says, "I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me you can do nothing."

"What kind of fruit?" was a question posed during our discussion. Many agreed that the verse means the fruit of the Spirit. "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law," Galatians 5:22-23.

Although I felt peace about having most of these attributes, admittedly working on others, I was given pause about verse 2, with its dire warning of "Every branch in Me that beareth not fruit, He taketh away." I asked God to give me something I could do to serve Him more.

Today I got a call asking if I wanted to volunteer to hold babies at the hospital! That's something I could do! There's nothing I love more than babies, having had six of my own, besides many grandchildren, some of whom I cared for as babies. Rocking and comforting a newborn seems like an answer to my prayer!

Last week our oldest granddaughter called from Tennessee asking PaPa and me to pray about a job opportunity she had. We prayed with her over the phone, and now she says she was hired the next day! This week she called for prayer concerning the sale of property. Yesterday the phone rang and she excitedly told me the property has sold!

John 15:7 assures us, "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you." He has been there all along with the answers to our prayers!

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