“I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me.” John 15:5
Wedding photographers are an interesting lot. One time in my eclectic past, I agreed to shoot a wedding. Bill Miller, a professional photographer and a friend of mine, had double-booked himself and needed someone to fill in. If the mother of the bride had known how little I knew about what I was doing, she would have expired on the spot. Fortunately for me, successfully faking it was an ability I received in full measure at birth. The bride’s mother had no idea.
This wedding was a long time ago. I think I charged two hundred dollars for my services. Three decades later, as the father of the bride, I was on the other end of this transaction. Suffice it to say, two hundred dollars barely covered the cost of the photographer’s private limousine. However, we were happy with the pictures we got from Missy and Jon’s wedding. In fact, the photographer threw in a free video—probably out of guilt, forcing me to take a second mortgage on my house to pick up his tab. His wife walked around the whole time the wedding was going on, a high-quality video camera resting on her shoulder. We’re crazy about this video. I’d say we like it more than the “stills,” but after paying so much for them, I just can’t bring myself to say this.
Many years ago, before feature-length movies were a click away from our Apple televisions, we rented a video from a local rental center (remember those?). And somehow, in our popping videotapes from our VCR to the storage boxes, we got our daughter’s wedding video into the plastic rental box and the Hollywood-produced rental video back in our memorabilia drawer. Three days later we got a call from a nice couple who had curled up for the evening to watch one of their favorite shoot-em-up, nail-biting adventure movies. You already know what happened, don’t you?
If you want to see the right movie, you’ve got to be sure you’re putting the right software into the machine or clicking “Purchase Now” on the right icon. You can stand there wishing you were seeing Stallone in fatigues in Southeast Asia, but you’ve got me in a tuxedo at First Presbyterian Church. I’m so sorry.
Here’s the principle: if you want a certain result, you have to be plugged into the right source. Jesus illustrated this truth using the vine and the branches. “Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me” (v. 4).
Being a man, a husband, and a father who lives in such a way that your friends, your wife, and your family are blessed because of your life is a tall order. In fact, Jesus was quick to say that if we’re not connected to Him, our “fruit” will be worthless, and our “branch” will die (vv. 5–6). And dead branches are only good enough for a bonfire.
If in the quietness of your own heart, you know that you’ve got a fruit problem, check what your branch is connected to. “You can do nothing without me,” Jesus said (v. 5).
By the way, we didn’t charge that couple the full retail price for renting our daughter’s wedding video. Because they hadn’t ordered it, we gave them a small discount.