Remain

Remain. Abide.

Dusty and I strolled along the road, her sniffing the grass and plants, and me picking some of the small wild raspberries which line parts of the road and make wonderful jam. 

Some of the plants looked challenged and the berries were tiny and not worth picking. Others flourished and the fruit was still small, but plump and juicy. All in the freezer now, waiting til I’ve combined them with some of the big berries off our own canes in order to make a few jars of jam.

Jesus told his friends to remain in him and they would bear a lot of fruit. He said, rather cryptically, that they could do nothing on their own, but needed to remain in him and then they would be very fruitful.

It’s a foreign concept to most of us. We feel we have to do things – it’s that protestant work ethic perhaps, that elevates busyness beyond where it should be. Jesus commended his friend Mary who sat at his feet and listened to all he had to teach her rather than helping her busy sister Martha. He’d have been happy for Martha to sit at his feet, too. I get the impression he’d have been happy to make do with a simpler meal and enjoy spending time with his friends, imparting some of the knowledge he had to give them. 

We can’t sit at the feet of Jesus anymore, literally, but when we read his words in the Bible it’s as though we are sitting at his feet, and when we do it prayerfully, with a listening and open heart, it’s amazing how we ‘hear’ him speak to us through what we are reading.

I heard him today. Remain in me, he said. Abide in me. I’m trying to slow down, and do that.