Just a Piece of Wood

 

Ezekiel 15:2

 “Son of man, how is the wood of the vine better than any other wood, the vine branch which is among the trees of the forest? 

Thought for the day – Just a Piece of Wood

We used to have a house that had a grape vine in the garden. Every year it would grow and try to take over the garden and every year we would cut it back. What struck me was just how soft vine wood is. It had the structural integrity of paper. Vine wood, it turns out, is good for exactly one thing: bearing fruit. Take that away, and you're left with something too soft to build with and too brittle to carve. Not even sturdy enough to hang a cup on.

God says the same of His people here, and I confess it lands a little close to home at the moment — especially in ministry. It's tempting, when you've been doing this a while, to find your worth in the role: the collar, the title, the years served, the meetings chaired. But Ezekiel won't let us get away with that. Cut off from fruitfulness, none of it holds any weight. We're vine wood, not oak. There's no fallback identity to lean on.

But here's the grace in it — the vine was never meant to produce fruit by gritting its teeth and trying harder. Jesus takes up this very image in John 15: "I am the vine, you are the branches." Fruit comes through spending time attached to the vine, abiding in Jesus, not achieving. It's grown, not manufactured.

So if you're weary in ministry, or just weary in general — this isn't about working harder to justify your position and purpose. It's an invitation to stay close to Jesus, the Vine, and let the fruit come as it will.