The True Vine

In his recent talk in general conference, Elder Ulisses Soares spoke about these words of the Savior: “I am the true vine…. Ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing” (John 15:1, 5). In other words, if we are not connected to the Savior, we will not be able to bear fruit. Elder Soares commented, “Through this beautiful and moving metaphor, the Savior teaches that He is the true, trusted, and essential source of spiritual nourishment for our souls. Through Him, we receive strength beyond our own not only to survive the challenges of life but to grow and thrive. Through Him, life becomes more hopeful and more joyful and the fruits of the Spirit are manifested in us. Therefore, just as the branches cannot bear fruit of themselves unless they remain connected to the vine, neither can we reach our full spiritual measure unless we abide in Him and His gospel.” I have typically thought of this imagery in terms of a tree, but a vine is actually not a tree. It is a climbing shrub that of course bears grapes as fruit and they can grow around trees. They do have a trunk which is the main stem, and “a fully developed trunk has arms – short branches from which canes and spurs originate.” Fruit can then grow off the branches, and of course those branches are useless if they get cut off from the main trunk.  The fact that the vine can grow around other trees and flexibly around perhaps is a symbol of how the Savior can work with all of us. He can bring fruit to any situation if we attach ourselves to Him.

Yesterday a friend mentioned a recent BYU devotional to me that I think highlights this principle well. Brother Bradley Owens told a story about his experience earning a PhD in organizational behavior. His first year was extremely rigorous and though he was working as hard as he could, he felt he couldn’t keep up with the other students. He had doubts about his ability to complete the program, and he felt the Lord say to him, “I can help you if you spend more time with me.” Though he didn’t think he really had the time, he made the commitment to go to the temple multiple times a month. He related, “As I began spending more time in the temple, things started to change significantly. My intense fears about my ability and the future began to melt away. The peace I felt in the temple began to spill into other areas of my life. I started to see my path more clearly and to feel hope. In gentle ways, like Lehi’s family, I felt as if I were being led in a more direct course through my graduate school wilderness…. One huge blessing was a dissertation sample that fell miraculously into my lap.” He continued, “When I had told my dissertation advisor I wanted to study the role of humility in leadership, he said, ‘That’s fine, Brad, but I have no idea where you’d find a real-life sample to gather data about that.’ However, a couple of weeks later he called me into his office and, with a confused look on his face, said, ‘Brad, this has never happened to me before. Yesterday a local leadership coach contacted me and said he was interested in having a scholar examine his approach to leadership training. He said that his main goal was to teach leaders to embrace humility.’” The advisor was so amazed at how this research sample just fell into Brad’s lap that he said, “Brad, what’s going on? This doesn’t just happen. Have you been . . . praying?” The advisor was agnostic, but he recognized a miracle when he saw one. And Brad knew that it was through the Savior’s help and the power of his temple covenants that he received this incredible help. He was able to bring forth much fruit indeed because he attached himself to the true vine.

 

Elder Soares summarized his message with these words: “I solemnly testify that Jesus Christ is the True Vine. He lives. He rose from the dead, and His redeeming power is real. I bear witness that His voice is the voice of truth and life. With perfect love, He invites all to abide in Him and to continue in His love that we may recognize His power in our lives, that God’s love may be perfected in us, and that we may know that we are in Him.” The more that we attach ourselves to him, the more power from Him we will have to face our challenges. Nephi saw in vision that this would be the case, especially in our day: “And it came to pass that I, Nephi, beheld the power of the Lamb of God, that it descended upon the saints of the church of the Lamb, and upon the covenant people of the Lord, who were scattered upon all the face of the earth; and they were armed with righteousness and with the power of God in great glory” (1 Nephi 14:14).