Don't Despise Winter
Yesterday was absolutely beautiful! A shorts and t-shirt day on the 10th of November does not happen a lot in Michigan. But now? Yes, the weather is turning sharply towards winter. Snow is in the forecast and the eight day projections have nothing out of the 30's for high temps. Last week, in our journey through Ephesians, we touched on Paul in chains for Christ Jesus (cf. Eph. 3:1). His interest was to remind the Ephesians that suffering for the Christian does not intimate that Jesus is not Lord over all, but rather is an indication that God is working in ways that we cannot see. Much like what happens during winter in the life of the vine.
Ugo Bassi, a novitiate in the Order of St. Barnabas, was preaching to a full hospital ward in Rome in the early 1800’s. He used this image of the vine to encourage those going through suffering to not despise their suffering; God was still at work. Here are some excerpts from that sermon that cast a light on the various seasons of life:
“The life of the vine is not of pleasure nor of ease. Almost before the flower fades the fruit begins to grow, but instead of being allowed to grow where it will it is tied immediately to a stake, forced to draw out of the hard hillside its nourishment. When the fair shoots begin to wind and wave in the blue air and feel how sweet it is, along comes the gardener with pruning tools and shears and strips it bare of all its innocent pride .. and cuts deep and sure, unsparing for its tenderness and joy.”
Bassi goes on to describe the vintage, “when the vine bends low with the weight of the grapes, wrought out of the long striving of its heart. But ah! the hands are ready to tear down the treasures of the grapes; the feet are there to tread the in the wine-press until red rivers of the wine run over and the land is full of joy. But the the vine standeth stripped and desolate, having given all the comfort and the glory of its gift. Winter comes and the vine is cut back to the very stem despoiled , disfigured, left a leafless stock, alone through all the dark days that shall come.
While the vine undergoes this death, the wine it has produced is gladdening the heart of man. … We need the paradigm of the vine, which is not bitter for the torment undergone, not barren for the fullness yielded up … the vine from every living limb bleeds wine. Is it the poorer for that spirit shed?”
Bassi concludes, "measure thy life by loss instead of gain; not by the wine drunk but by the wine poured forth; for love's strength standeth in love's sacrifice. And whoso suffer most hath most to give."
Winter is hard; hard on vines, hard on humans. But were it not for the long strivings of winter there would not be the harvest that produces the red rivers of wine to gladden our hearts. So too the life of those in union with Christ; they yield their fruit in season and their leaf does not wither (cf. Ps. 1:3). Through Christ our suffering has meaning. Don't despise winter.
Photo by Karsten Würth on Unsplash