Windowsill Faith
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” John 15:5
Have you ever put a tomato on your windowsill, in hopes it will ripen?
Perhaps it’s barely red, but you’re hoping for more? You sit it in a perfect spot to capture all the sun it can, so it will change into as deepest as it will go.
Have you ever done this?
I’ve done it.
I still do it.
I tend to line up my ’maters all in a row, against my kitchen window, to soak up the sun, and wait for them to deepen.
Anyone else?
The savvy gardeners in the group are shaking their heads. They know that what I wrote, and what I do, has nothing to do with the ripening of the fruit. Nothing!
And honestly, I know it, too. Lol. (sorry).
But it’s a hard habit to break! There’s just something in me, that still wants to do it. Maybe because tomatoes=sunshine. The two naturally go together. Sunshine is such a huge component of sweet, juicy, deep-flavored tomatoes.
But in reality, sun is a part of them only while they grow, not after they are picked.
The biosynthesis process within a tomato, determines the ripening process of the tomato. If it didn't happen, no amount of anything will ripen a tomato. But the tomato that remained through the process--now, that tomato, picked after it starts blushing, can be put in the darkest of places, and yet, will still ripen. It is an inward-outward process. The external circumstances around it, doesn’t determine the ripeness of it.
That just screams a lesson to me!
Hence, why you’re reading this.
It’s what I call, Windowsill Faith.
In essence…
Do we think the external will provide for our good, or do we know the internal sustains for our best?
Jesus spoke of this very thing—(our verse above).
He couldn’t put it in a more simplistic example to an agrarian culture back then. A culture that understood sowing and growing. And today, we can still understand it—us grocery store shoppers and all.
When we accept Jesus into our lives, we become attached/part of, THE life-giving vine. The vine that gives us everything we need to grow. Everything we need to ripen. Everything we need to sustain. It gives us the internal, over the external, for the eternal.
We can grow, and become, and endure, even in the darkest times, and in the not-so-great surroundings, and through the tough circumstances—not because of what is around us, but because of Who is inside of us. Jesus becomes our inward-outward source.
So it begs the question—
Which Windowsill Faith do you have?
Is it hoping the external helps, or is it knowing the internal perfects?
Are you at a place in life where you're waiting for what is around you to get better, and then you’ll be better? Are you waiting for some thing, to make something, out of your life? Are you on the sill waiting, not knowing?
Or, are you on the sill knowing, and just waiting!!
Those are two very different forms of faith.
One says the world has you, the other says God has you. Which do you choose?
May I suggest…Jesus.
He is the Life-Giving source. He is the source that dwells and remains in us, even when we’re plucked and picked into areas of life that we don’t want to be. All because we make a choice.
A choice to remain, in Him...because we grow, through Him...and will be ripened, by Him.
With Him, we never have to sit on a windowsill wondering; we can sit on the sill knowing!
It is the Vine, that perfects the fruit, that perfects the life, that perfects the bounty, well before it is ever used.
Jesus is the source that perfects.
Which Windowsill Faith will you choose?