Grafted in

I’m looking at some beautiful roses from our garden.

They grow up one stem and then divide into three or four small blooms, and are the most delicate shade of peachy white. Just gorgeous.

Well, I brought this one stem in yesterday and as I looked at it, I noticed the stump from where I had dead-headed an earlier bloom. It got me to thinking about the Trinity, and me. The Trinity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – is such a hard concept to understand. Three in one – how does that work exactly? Recently I read someone comparing the relationship within the Trinity as an intimate dance, into which the Godhead is seeking to draw each of us in. I love that image. 

But back to the stump. We’re also told that we have been grafted in, and that if we don’t bear fruit, we will be cut off. That stump makes me think of being cut off, but given my thoughts during the last few days about abiding in Jesus rather than being required to be rushing around doing stuff all the time, I don’t feel daunted, just reminded, challenged, to abide.

It looks beautiful to abide. Just look at those roses. 

The sun is out and I’m working in the garden today, but while I am working there, I am abiding. I see evidence of the creativity of the Lord everywhere, and as I pluck and eat a warm raspberry, or dig up clumps of irises, I praise him.

Thank God that I’ve been grafted in.