The Vine, The Gardener, and The Branches
- Morgan Benner
- Jun 20
- 6 min read
I love the transition from winter to spring. You wait for signs of spring to come, through what seems like months of rain, and then, sprouting all at once, the signs are here. The grass is greener and glimpses of life come back all around you.
I’ve been listening to Annie F. Downs’ ‘Seasons’ podcast series this year and have absolutely loved how she and her guests have talked about how we experience seasons in nature (depending on where you live, you experience all 4!) but how little we talk about how we experience seasons spiritually as well. Winter is sometimes hard. It can feel barren, long, dark, and lifeless. You can’t wait for spring because you need light, encouragement, and signs of life.
As I was in my garden last week, training my cucumbers, zucchinis, and peas to climb a trellis and pulling weeds that could inhibit growth, I couldn’t help but reflect on this truth – spring is a wonderful season to venture into, but it is also a lot of hard work. Just as in our lives, both naturally and spiritually, once the signs of spring appear, you have to clear space, pull weeds, plant seeds, till the ground, and devote time, blood, sweat, and sometimes tears to preparing for a harvest that may take months to yield.
I’ve called my garden “The Gospel Garden” because it has completely illuminated the gardening language throughout Scripture. The Bible uses gardening imagery so beautifully and I think we can take a lot away on how we live our lives alongside our Creator and Cultivator. Let’s look at John 15 and pull out three truths:
John 15:1 CSB – “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.” John 15:5a – “I am the vine; you are the branches.”
Jesus starts out by being clear on identity and purpose. God the Father is the gardener and in the original Greek, “the tiller of the soil”, and Jesus is the true vine. We are the branches. Have you ever been in a season where you took on the role of gardener, vine, and branches? Like you were responsible for cultivating a perfect environment for an outcome to happen, or you were trying to make something grow out of nothing, only to find yourself exhausted and burnt out?
Meditating on the identity and purpose of these three roles in this passage gave me so much freedom in the sense that I don’t have to do it all. I can trust God to go before me and prepare hearts for hard conversations, open doors that I can’t even see, and to grow things in me that I’m not capable of doing on my own.
John 15:4-5 – “Remain in me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me.”
Second, Jesus tells us that when we abide, our lives will bear fruit. This has been a fun and confusing lesson for my three-year-old. She loves to be my helper and water our flowers and herb/vegetable gardens, but doesn’t quite understand why she can’t pick leaves or flowers off when they’re still young. She also found it perplexing that my Mother’s Day flowers had to be thrown away after a week because they died.
What a beautiful picture lesson on our lives walking with Christ. It is easy enough for an adult to understand that once a flower is cut from the main plant, its source of nutrients gets cut off. It can stay alive for a short period of time submerged in water, but the lifeline of the flower has been severed and it is only a matter of time until it decays.
This is exactly what can happen to us spiritually when we don’t stay connected to Jesus. If we casually stop reading our Bibles, if we aren’t connected to a local church and community, and if we’re not spending time with the Father in prayer, we may not see a difference right away. We still may feel like we’re coasting and thriving, but inside, we are slowly drifting and decaying. Our thoughts may drift from the authority of Scripture, and our reactions to situations may be fed by our emotions instead of truth. When we are not connected to the true vine, our life source, eventually our lives will reflect it because “you can do nothing without me [Jesus].”
How wonderful of our Savior that we get to abide and not strive. As we continue to ‘just be’ with Him, He is the one Who bears fruit in our lives. That fruit can look like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22).
John 15:2 – “Every branch in me that does not produce fruit he removes, and he prunes every branch that produces fruit so that it will produce more fruit.”
Lastly, pruning is painful, but necessary. Doesn’t it seem contradictory that every branch that actually produces fruit gets pruned, or cut? Wouldn’t you think that a branch producing fruit would just be left alone?
This isn’t the case in real gardening, and it’s not the case with us. Once my basil plant reaches 3 nodes high, I cut it. It seems irrational and every time I do it, it feels counterintuitive. But what happens is where the one cut node is, two branches will shoot out, and the plant will double in size.
Sometimes, in order for us to grow, God has to prune us of things that shouldn’t be in our lives that are preventing growth, or prunes good things in our lives so we can be prepared for the best things.
When I first became a Believer, I went through an incredibly hard season of pretty much losing all of my friends that had been in my life for a long time. Some of it was on me, but I truly believe that God pruned that area of my life because He knew that where He was taking me, those friends would limit my growth and what God wanted to do through my life. Now, I have amazing friends who are selfless, not harsh, encouraging, and who pray for me.
Years ago when I went through that pruning season, it was hard and it hurt. But, it was completely necessary. Other times, God needs to prune things that is ‘of our flesh’ so we can continue to grow mature and look like Jesus. A verse before ‘The Fruit of the Spirit’ outlines the works of the flesh in Galatians 5:21 – “sexual immorality, moral impurity, promiscuity, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and anything similar.”
God wants to remove these things from our lives because He is our Father and wants the best for us. He wants us to grow, flourish, and bear fruit. When pruning happens to rid us of harmful things, it can still feel painful but joy and freedom will be on the other side – every time. He is a Good Father!
No matter what season you find yourself in – Jesus is there. He wants you to abide in Him so you can bear fruit so that John 15:8 can be true – “My Father is glorified by this.”
FURTHER THOUGHT: Think about the vine, the gardener, and the branches. Have you considered your spiritual life to be compartmentalized in seasons? If you haven’t, this may be something to meditate on. Just like we wouldn’t forget our winter coat in negative temperatures, we want to be prepared and aware of what season we could be in so that we can lean into what God may be trying to do. I highly recommend going back and listening to Annie F. Downs’ Winter and Spring episodes, and staying in tune for the Summer and Fall. I have taken away so much!
PRAYER: Father, thank you so much for the gift of Your Word. Thank you that throughout every stage and season of my life, You are there. Thank You that prune harmful things to me out of my life and prune good things to produce great things for You and Your Kingdom. Remind me that You are for me when it feels hard. Help me abide in You so that I can bear much fruit and glorify You in everything I do. In Jesus’ Name, Amen!
ABOUT MORGAN BENNER
Morgan Benner is a woman transformed by faith, and if you had met her in the first 27 years of her life, you might not recognize her today. Jesus completely changed her, making her not just a different person but a new one. She now enjoys life with her best friend and husband, Derek, and their sweet three-year-old daughter, continually experiencing God’s love and growing in faith through her family. A creative at heart, Morgan uses her gifts to serve at her church—whether through video announcements, social media, small group leadership, or welcoming others into an encounter with Jesus. Professionally, she works as a Talent Acquisition Manager for a Fortune 500 company, a role that reflects her deep love for people. Known for meeting others right where they are, she is passionate about sharing the good news of the One who changed her life.
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