marbles & grapes

Tonight is the bi-weekly chapel at my work ~ for those who don't know it, I work at a women's recovery house ~ being the chaplain, it is my job to either lead chapel myself or find someone else to head it up. Tonight I am taking the lead. It is a real blessing for me to spend my days in and amongst these women, journeying alongside them as they make good choices towards healthy living. I am pretty sure they do not even know how truly blessed I am to know them!

In thinking and praying for the topic tonight, I came across a small illustration about marbles and grapes, and how we as Christians can either be clacking marbles or soft (and caring) grapes. It got me thinking about living in community (such as this house) and how difficult that is some days - because we tend to naturally clack together.

Think about marbles.
The problem with our society (at least in the western world) is that we are living like marbles in a bag. We're hard, there is no give, and we continuously roll around, clacking up against each other.
I feel like a marble a lot of the time. Just trying to get through the day, attempting to let those that clack up against me roll off, pretending that I'm not hurt; I'm tough! The longer I roll around in the bag next to other marbles, the harder I get; the tougher I get. The words that I speak and the actions I take prove that I am a marble.

Think about grapes. They are soft, protected, sweet, beautiful. I believe that God wants us to live like a cluster of grapes. The longer we live on the vine next to the other grapes, the sweeter we'll get. But being a grape is just too hard sometimes.
I think most of us have been a grape, but we always seem to go back to being that hard marble. Why? Sin. Because its seems easier. Like a lot less work. The marbles seem to be everywhere.
Can we possibly be a sweet grape in the midst of marbles?

God must of thought so, because His son most definitely was, and we have been called to be Christ like.
How can we do this? We stay on the vine with Him. We let Him feed us. We stay under His protection. When the rain comes (and it will!), we will remember that we are protected like a leaf protects the grapes. By His merciful, beautiful hand. Then we can continue to stay on the vine.
Protected.
Sweet.
Beautiful.

“I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more. You have already been pruned and purified by the message I have given you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me.
“Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned. But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted!"
~John 15:1-7