Abide and Prepare

I remember returning to the thousand acres of vineyards just north of the Great Wall of China in Hebei Province. It was the mid 1990s and we had created a Joint Venture with the Chinese to produce wine. The latitude was the same as Rome, the climate conducive and the new fermentation facility decked with bottling plant and laboratory ready to produce. On the visit I was concerned to see the vines look decimated, cut back I became concerned that it had been butchered. Alas not.

To cut back, prune and prepare is an essential process to produce the best grape, in turn the best wine. The vine and branch must be kept, anything dead cut away. In this season of pandemic virus we have been cut back, kept away from family, office , workplace and in isolation. Rather than see this time with concern it is a time that we are able to use to focus on what is essential in our lives. In much the same way the economies of the world were set on pause cut back and pruned readying for a new harvest. Whether in our own lives or the part we play in the Economy we remain rooted in the Vine together and in the vine we abide.

In the Book of John we are told that God our maker is the vine and we are to abide with Him and in doing so we will bear much fruit. To abide with Him will ensure the best. Cutting out, cutting away that which is dead is essential in our lives and our economies. Post pandemic things will be trimmed, the unnecessary removed. Will we still need all the offices, the shops, to sit in traffic, to go through Airport security or eat out so often? Will we still need to try do everything ? rather than concentrate on what is going to help us. More time with our families, our children nurturing and nourishing. Will we still need to journey for hours to seek rest ? or can we enjoy our own island most of which many have never seen.

In due season and in season that will come there will be a new harvest a new era, a new chapter on Earth and we now have the opportunity to thrive. Unless we believe that better days are ahead we will not see them for in Faith and in hope we must live. It was no accident that life as we knew got put on hold for our individual and collective well being. Yes there will be difficult times, there will be success and failure, crop will fail, neither are final. It is the courage to continue that counts and our strength to do so lies in our faith and the hope given through the abide with Him. Wherever you are this day pause a moment in your solitude and look to remove that which needs to be cut away, pruned for purpose and in doing so prepare for the great harvests to come. Be assured that the Captains of Industry will be doing the same and looking to use the new technologies we have and to come. It is a new season and change in the time to come. Read chapter 15 of that book of John then Abide and Prepare for your harvest.