Wisdom from the Vineyard by Beth MooreSample

When Jesus told the parable of the fig tree midway through Luke’s Gospel, He turned up the volume on the vinedresser’s patience and compassion. He earnestly desired to delay judgment so he could work with the tree and urge it to fruitfulness. If, after the determined length of time, the tree still didn’t produce anything, he’d agree to the brisk swing of an ax.

Don’t dream that the Vinedresser won’t dig around in your well-manicured soil. He doesn’t even mind tearing up your landscaping, if that’s what it takes. 

And He won’t just go digging up your old skeletons and unearth a few fossils of your family tree. He’s liable to dig up all sorts of things that got buried alive. 

But if He does, you need not wonder why. The Vinedresser digs around the roots of a tree to stimulate fruit, to prod and goad that plant into productivity, to shock it a bit with a shovel so it will wake up and do what it’s meant to do. 

This is the grace of God. This is the transforming power of the Cross. This is the way of the God of countless chances.

  Let me sing for my beloved 

     my love song concerning his vineyard: 

My beloved had a vineyard 

     on a very fertile hill. . . . 

What more was there to do for my vineyard, 

     that I have not done in it?

Isaiah 5:1, 4

The Vinedresser isn’t afraid to get a little dirt under His fingernails.