Are You Connected?

 

T

he only difference between a man and a boy is the price of his toys.”  I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve heard my mother quote this, especially when dad had his eye on a new car, or some other must-have.  Well, like father, like son! 

 

Anyone who knows me knows that I love toys and I mean the electronic kind!  I am always on the search for some new gadget that will make life easier or just more fun.  I usually refer to Best Buy as the adult Toys Are Us!!!  I just love to duck in there and see what’s new, what’s coming, and just what I “need” to purchase.  I mean, after all, I’ve gotta keep ahead of the technology curve and it’s changing almost daily! 

 

Currently, I have several of the Amazon Echoes in my home.  They do everything from play my favorite music playlists to turning my lights on, to running my thermostat.  I just love them. I use them to call my mom and dad on their Echoes, yes, I made sure they had several as well.  I am morally obligated to keep them abreast of all the latest technology!  In short, the Echoes run my home and keep me on track.  As long, that is, as they are connected to the Internet, and therein lies our subject for today’s Tidbit. 

 

Several weekends ago, my Echoes revolted and went on strike. I have them connected in a group, so they play my music simultaneously.  I can be in the den listening to a song and go to my bedroom and hear the same music without missing a beat.  All that came to a grinding halt on that weekend.  The Echoes lost their connection and, well, they were just useless.  I couldn’t get a thing out of them.  So, what did I do? I spent several minutes, almost an hour, on the phone with the good people in support getting them reconnected. 

 

Once connected back to the Internet they functioned perfectly.  That connection was essential, without that, they were not useful or productive.  The application to the Christian life is not a far stretch.  Jesus knew that in order to live the Christian life, staying connected to him was essential.  He stressed this point to his disciples, telling them that without being connected to him, they could do absolutely nothing. 

 

Let’s take a look at his words from John 15:5 “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” Jesus used the grapevine as an example of the importance of staying connected to him.  Grapes were a very important commodity in Jesus’s day.  In order for good grapes to form and survive, the branch which bears them must be securely attached to the vine.  The vine provides all the nutrients necessary to cause the branches to produce grapes. If there is no connection to the vine, grapes will never form. 

 

The job of the keeper of the vineyard is to find those branches that are not connected and remove them. Likewise, it is his duty to prune those branches that do produce grapes so that they grow better and more luscious fruit.  As our Lord says, he is the vine, and we are the branches.  Without him, we can do nothing. We are useless, exactly like my Echoes that lose their connection to the Internet.  So, are you connected today?