Wisdom from the Vineyard by Beth MooreMuestra

One of the loveliest terms in viticulture is terroir, meaning “sense of place.” (1)You can see its relationship to the word terre, meaning “earth,” but terroir encompasses more than ground. It captures the interplay between factors such as soil, climate, the plant itself, and its orientation toward the sun. Together, these factors ultimately shape the “personality” of the resulting fruit.(2)

We are not so different from those vines that need a conducive environment to grow in. We spend our lives looking for home. We crave a sense of place. We are roots dangling in the air, carried by the wind, looking frantically for fitting terroir. But that’s part of the mystery. Part of the romance, really. For here and now, our terroir cannot be found in any plot of terrestrial ground. 

As followers of Christ, our primary terroir, or “sense of place,” is Christ. Jesus is our singular place of abiding, the terroir of every true branch. The former vine, Israel, was rooted in the land, but Jesus didn’t call His disciples to cling to the land. He called them to cling to Him, even as they went to the far-flung corners of the earth. 

  I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. . . . Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. 

John 15:1, 5

We live our lives craving a sense of place. 

(1)Robert E. White, Understanding Vineyard Soils (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), 25.

(2) White, 17.