9/1/08

my life as a branch...

A what? Yes you read it correctly. What a way to start out my first post on my first blog! Hey check out this blog... this crazy woman thinks she's a tree! Bear with me.
Actually I'm still experimenting with my ability to figure out how to set up a blog. You see I only have dial up...which means a definate lack of highspeed internet....and I'm not exactly a computer whiz either. No, I don't live in some rural village in Mexico...we had highspeed there..and we don't live in Haiti ,I know its available there too. We live in rural Canada (the prairie part) and have been told by our phone company that we are not in the five year plan to get it in our town.....looks like we'll have to move back to Mexico. So, if there is a obvious lack of entertaining features like pictures and background music.....just picture Jessica Alba and hum your favorite tune while you read.

So back to the branch thing. As I was looking over the "who am I?" question in my profile...I started going over all the possible answers.

I am a daughter (a farmers to be specific)

I am a wife who has been married for 12 years (to a Seattle city boy turned farm boy)

I am a mother of three young children (beautiful , brilliant and perfectly well behaved children I might add...hey its my profile I can write whatever I want )

I am a foster mom (currently without a placement)

I am a caretaker of other peoples children (that sounds better than babysitter doesn't it?)

I am a friend
......actually I'm still learning what all these things mean and miss the mark of perfection on any one of these by a long shot!

I am a coffee enthusiast....a closet activist...a wanna-be missionary....

I am not an English professor as you can see by my grammer and spelling

I am a branch...there it is again. Why does that keep coming into my head? Honestly, as I ran through the list this is what stood out in my mind. Not exactly something to add to a resume.


Here is where the idea comes from......from something Jesus said to his followers.


"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. " John 15:5


So there it is...I am a branch, firmly attached to the vine. What is my job description as a branch? Well generally it doesn't do much other than what it was designed to do. It draws nourishment from the vine ...which I might add is planted next to a stream. So my job is to draw and recieve nourishment and life giving water . In order to do that I must stay clinging to the vine. A branch cut off from the tree isn't worth much unless you are looking to make a nice bon fire. So what is the natural outcome of remaining attached? It says I will bear fruit. Oh, and by the way, I don't get to pick what kind of fruit I get to make that was decided and programed into my dna a long time ago.....about the time I as grafted on. You see, I am an implant...a graft....lovingly and painstakinly attached and bound onto the tree. I am keenly aware of my new status as a "fruit bearer" and am determined to bear beautiful fruit to add to the glory of my tree. Unfortunately I keep forgetting what my job is and sometimes I start to become detached ... a bit of bark here , some leaking sap there...its not pretty....and sometimes I start focusing on trying to produce myself some fruit, maybe some showy blossoms. ....I hear there is a real need for peaches ... it is nice to feel needed, I met a star fruit once.....I think I'd like to make those. So there it is... I have now turned myself into a fruit analogy.


So who am I? well, I am still in the process of figuring that out and hopefully still being developed into the person I was made to be.
What I do know is I am known fully and deeply by the God of the universe....
and get this , I am loved anyway, even with my tendencies to forget who I am!
...and not merely just tolerated.... but loved in a way that is passionate and sacrificial....
thats a good place to start.


3 comments:

lanagummeson said...

I shall enjoy your musings regularly. I just found your blog and intend to read it religiously ;) pardon the parallel. ;) Thanks for being authentic in your words - it will be good to know you deeper friend.

Colleen McCubbin said...

Wow, Carla. For someone who only has dial-up, you have created a most beautiful blog. I'm glad to have discovered it. Where did you get this gorgeous background?

Anonymous said...

Hey Carla thanks for stopping by my blog the other day. It's so amazing how God allows interesting ones to cross paths. :-)
I am looking forward to browsing through your blog more. I hope you come back and visit mine. I'm working on my reading list for 2009. Where do you live? I miss Calgary. It will always be home to me. Have a happy and blessed New Year. Fellow branch, Julie Park