Almost every year it is the same. The first grapes appear on the shelf in the store in the springtime. I really love grapes, and these are the first ones I have seen in about six months. Something inside says "Wait a bit. They won't be ripe enough yet." But too often I ignore the voice of experience and buy those grapes.
When I get them home and taste them, I remember why I should have waited. They are sour. That is bad enough, but when I leave them on the counter for a few days, they do not get any sweeter. Bananas or peaches are different. If they are not ripe, just wait a day or two and they will be sweet. But grapes do not ripen on the shelf. There is only one way to make those grapes sweeter: leave them on the vine. Once they are cut off of the vine, they will always be sour.
Jesus did not compare his disciples to bananas. He wants us to grow to maturity, and the only way we can do that is simply to remain in him. That is where the life is. That is where we receive the nutrients that will help us grow to be like Jesus and to bring fruit for him.
It is all too common for us to try to do it on our own. We want to step away from the vine for a minute, to do just this one thing by ourselves. But we cannot. "You can do nothing without me," said Jesus. Actually, we can do a lot, but it will add up to exactly nothing if we are "independent," separated from the source of life.
It is his fruit, formed by his life, so it will only mature as we stay life-attached to him.
- 6 NOVEMBER -