When the farmer grafts a branch onto his tree, or his plant, or his vine, he does so with great hope. He doesn't do it grudgingly; it is a decided choice of his. He wants to graft this branch, and he wants to see what it will do - mainly, bear fruit. He doesn't graft it doubtfully or skeptically or with disapproval for the branch; he feels that the branch holds great promise now that it is grafted into the sturdy stock of the vine or tree, and he also knows that the success of the branch largely depends on how well the farmer takes care of that graft. The farmer has an invested interest in the graft; he went to the work of finding the branch, preparing it, grafting it, wrapping it and tying it tight to the vine. He would never graft it and then leave it alone, never checking on it to see if the graft is taking. He gives that graft everything it could ever possibly need so that it will grow strong and fruitful.
-"I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser...I am the vine, you are the branches..." John 15
-"For if you were cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree." Romans 11
When my little branchy heart is convicted and wanting to turn back to my Father-Farmer, why would I ever doubt His heart to want my good?
***Thoughts from Andrew Murray's book, Abiding in Christ.
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