Ezekiel 17:22-23a
“This is what the Sovereign Lord says:  I myself will take a shoot from the very top of a cedar and plant it; I will break off a tender sprig from its topmost shoots and plant it on a high and lofty mountain.  On the mountain heights of Israel I will plant it; it will produce branches and bear fruit and become a splendid cedar.”

John 15:1a, 4
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener…Remain in me, and I will remain in you.  No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine.  Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.”

Isaiah 11:1-3
“A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.  The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him—the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord—and he will delight in the fear of the Lord.”

Giver of life, all green and growing things flourish as they reach for you.

You are the splendid cedar and the true vine.  We draw all sustenance from you, and would wither but for our grafting into a greater host.

Plant us and prune us into branches reverent to the Gardener.  May we be rooted in wisdom, nourished by your Spirit and produce fruit in keeping with our source.

This we ask for the sake of Jesus, the true tree of life, who was cut off from glory and nailed to a tree of death so that we might remain forever grounded in you.

Listen to ‘Vineyard’ by Strahan