John 15:4
Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me.
As I kid, I remember looking through my mom's old books. While quickly scanning for anything that caught my eye I would occasionally come across a keepsake in the form of a dry flower. It's petals and stem frozen in time; a memento from some forgotten outing. In general, a dry flower is a beautiful thing and something worth holding on to. A bouquet of them can lend a vintage feel to any room and don't need any water at all. However, no matter how stunning an arrangement you have of these crisp-petaled beauties one fact still remains: they are dead. They can't grow, they can't produce pollen, and their color will never be as vibrant as a live flower. Like branches that detach themselves from the vine, sometimes we are too content to remain dry, dead flowers unable to grow or perpetuate life. Only by remaining part of the larger plant (that is the true vine; Christ) can we truly live out our vibrant, fruitful, beautiful purpose!
