December 13

Connection with the vine

“And nothing shall be impossible unto you” (Matt. 17:20).
“I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Phil. 4:13).

At a certain agricultural school in Western United States, one of the professors recently made some interesting experiments with a growing squash (a vegetable similar to a marrow). He fitted a harness of strap iron over the squash in such a way that, as the vegetable grew, the expanding iron harness would register the strength that the squash exerted upon it. Thus harnessed, the squash lifted at different stages of its growth weights of sixty, five hundred, eleven hundred, and eventually three thousand pounds. And all this marvelous power was made possible through just one thing—the connection of the squash with the vine.


One of the most amazing things in life is the power for burden-bearing that apparently weak and almost helpless men and women often manifest. . . . We marvel that they do not go down beneath their loads. Instead, they accept them with patience and cheerfulness; day after day they fare courageously onward.
There is an explanation. If the secret of the inner life of these people could be known, the explanation of their strength would be found in just one thing—connection with the Vine. They are in constant contact with Him Who said, “I am the true vine.” “I can do all things,” wrote the great Apostle, “through Christ which strengtheneth me.”

Would He speak more clearly, fully,
If we listened more;
If we waited at His footstool,
In a hush unknown before?

Would His guidance seem more certain,
On this uphill way,
If our hands held His more closely,
If we never looked away?

O I think we miss the pathway,
Go unsatisfied,
Just by failing to remember
That the Master said, “Abide.”
—Edith Hickman Divall.

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