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Clinging to Anything


I love mandevilla plants.  Every summer I buy one and enjoy the beautiful pink, tropical looking blooms throughout the season.  I always use the same big, square, terra cotta pot with a wonderful trellis for it to climb.  This year’s model sits at the corner of our brick walk here at the house in Long Island.  It has been especially beautiful and has bloomed prolifically all summer. 

Recently I walked by to find that in spite of the perfect trellis provided for it, the mandevilla had sent tendrils out in search of something to climb and had attached themselves to the nearby hydrangea.  Typically I redirect the rogue shoots onto the trellis as I pass by, but had neglected to do so for a few days.  For some reason the new growth has to be coaxed and directed to climb the very thing intended for them.  New shoots stubbornly reach out as if in search of something better than what I have provided for them.  It takes constant tending and hands on winding and training to get the mandevilla to stay where it belongs and needs to be. 

How like that mandevilla I am, we are.  God in his wisdom and according to his perfect plan had placed me where He wants me.  He has provided everything I need to walk in his perfect will and fulfill his plan for me.  But I stubbornly keep reaching out for something else, something more.  Sometimes I do better than others and I cling to him and his plan for me.  Other days I am like the mandevilla tendrils reaching out, groping for something more appealing, safer, different. 

Trouble is, when I look elsewhere for what I need I get further from the source of my strength and purpose.  Only when I am securely and tightly wound up in God’s love, his blessing, and his guidance can I thrive and grow.  Lord keep me wound up in you secure in you as my source of all I need.

I am the vine and you are the branches.  If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.  If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.  If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.  This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.  John 15:5-8





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