"Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me." When I first read these words spoken by Jesus in John 15:4, I was a young teenager in confirmation class at Elmhurst Presbyterian Church near Chicago. What I heard was Jesus saying, "We're connected. You're not alone. You don't have to figure things out by yourself. I'm here for you." And in a more encompassing sense, I caught his affirmation that "We're both part of a larger community," and given the core themes of John's gospel, "We're all rooted together in God's love."

It wasn't long before I came across some related words in Ephesians 3:17-19--ah, yes! If I have touchstones in the scriptures, and I surely do, this is one of my dearest treasures: the writer prays for his (or her) readers "that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God." (King James Version)

Ah, Yes, Amen!!

Now, how about that "fruit" Jesus mentions? Only when I later found Henri Nouwen's book Lifesigns (c. 1986), did I begin to learn how exciting and freeing and beautiful fruitfulness can be. As he writes, "Jesus cared deeply for the people he met. He did not control or dominate them, but through his words and actions offered them an opportunity to search for new directions and make new choices."(p. 71)

Nouwen emphasizes that "when we are no longer dominated by fear and have experienced the first love of God, we no longer need to know from moment to moment what is going to happen. We can trust that good things will happen if we remain rooted in that love. All true education, formation, and healing are ways to let the fruits of love grow and develop to full maturity. All ministry is a caring attentiveness to vulnerable lives, and a grateful receiving of the variety of fruits by which they manifest their beauty." (p. 71-72)

Henri Nouwen's book is called Lifesigns: Intimacy, Fecundity, and Ecstasy in Christian Perspective.