The Husbandman

This spring my husband grew tomatoes.  Everyday he would go out and check on his tomato plants.

 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

He watered them.  He fed them. He would remove the little suckers at the bottom of the plants, he would check for insects on the plants.  He would look for blooms and later tomatoes.

When the tomatoes came, he covered the plants with netting to prevent the birds and the squirrels from helping themselves to a meal.  He could tell you at any given time how many tomatoes were on the vines.  If a plant became weighted down with it's fruit, he would make sure it was well staked and supported.  If a tomato became split or damaged, he would remove it lest it damage the whole plant. 

Basically, he was intimately involved with every aspect of those plants.  There was not anything the plants needed which was in his power to provide that he did not know about nor provide. He felt responsible for the well-being of those plants and for the crop of tomatoes.

In the Gospel of John, Jesus tells us, "I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman," (John 15:1).  Jesus is the vine and God the Father is the husbandman.  We are the branches which grow upon the True Vine.  God the Father, as our husbandman, is intimately involved in every aspect of our lives, just as my husband was with those tomatoes.  There is not anything we need of which our Heavenly Father is unaware.  There is not anything we need which He has not already supplied by His own dear Son.

"But my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus," (Philippians 4:19).

If we are weighted down, He provides His Word and fellow Christians around us to be the support to help lift us up and encourage us.

We don't have to be concerned with the fruit produced in our lives.  If we keep our focus on our True Vine our Husbandman will take care of everything needed to produce fruit.  Our focus must be on the Vine because without Him we can do nothing.

"I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in Me, 

and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: 

for without Me ye can do nothing."  
John 15:5