July 6, 2007

Part three:

Jack clambered from leaf stem to leaf stem, their gigantic proportions making them each as huge to him as broad tree branches.  Having committed himself to continue to “seek things above”, he only allowed himself a brief glance down.  He marveled that his steady ascent up the spiraling bean stalk seemed to have already brought him far above the dry valley floor of his home.

When his eyes returned to the sky above him he suddenly saw a cloud bank into which the vine climbed and disappeared.  “That’s strange,” he thought for he had not seen a single cloud in the sky before he had begun his climb.

Nevertheless, he continued on, pausing only a moment before plunging into the thick billowing cloud.  It was so thick that he couldn’t see and he nearly panicked.  His hand brushed against something that felt different from the leaves of the vines, parchment perhaps.  He grasped it and pulled it to his face and found that as he did so, the mist cleared just enough for him to see that words were written on it like the ones he had found below.

“I am the true Vine,” the words said.  “Remain in Me and I will remain in you” (John 15:1, 4a).  He paused, seated on a branch as it swayed gently in the wind.  “Remain in the Vine,” he repeated softly to himself and then began to climb again.  Soon his head poked through the surface of the cloud, and he looked around, wondering where he was.  He was surrounded by what seemed to be a garden of some sort.  Tremendous flowers and grass that were as tall as trees surrounded him, running off in all directions.  To his left, the garden ended abruptly at the wall of a tremendous castle.

The bean stalk did not seem to be deterred by the great, green lawn surrounding it, nor by the presence of the giant castle nearby, but continued onward and upward.  Jack was paralyzed for a moment, caught between the resolve that had propelled him up the vine in the first place, and by either something like curiosity or confusion about what to do (he wasn’t sure which).

The thought came to him that surely this was that to which the vine had meant to bring him all along, although the words, “remain in Me” echoed in his mind.  He pushed them aside and imagined all sorts of food and treasure that must be hidden behind the hundred foot walls before him.  He finished climbing up and released his hold of the bean stalk, not hearing the barely audible sound of something like a sigh of sorrow that may have been only the wind, but than again may have not.

He ran quickly to the giant door, which was made of brass, and pounded on its dull surface.  There was no response to his tiny knocking, although he might have felt a slight tremor in the ground.  He looked around; saw a crack in the door that was nearly as big as a small doorway to him; and crawled through it.  He found himself in a huge hall filled with rich and wonderful furnishings, but he coughed for the air seemed so stale.  Jack strode forward through the great room and looked in wonder at all the riches he saw.  Diamond chandeliers, tables made of dark polished wood and set with rare and beautiful gems.  He walked through the room and into a second, finding it as richly furnished as the first, yet in its center was a great banquet table, set with all kinds of delicacies.  At its far end was an enormous chair, like a throne.  He glanced through the doorways on either side and saw on his right, a room filled with barrels of grain.  On his left was a room with a beautiful golden harp.

Jack was beside himself with joy!  Oh, how glad he was that he had climbed the vine, for here was his reward!  Delicious sustenance for his famished frame, seed for sowing grain for his hungry mother and neighbors back at home, and a wonderful harp with which he could render the sweet sound of praise for his benefactor!  With that, he ran to the banquet table and climbed his way up one of its legs to the top.  But then he stopped.  A parchment lay before him like the ones he had found previously.  He picked it up and unrolled it and studied its words.  “When you sit to dine with a ruler, note well what is before you…  Do not crave his delicacies, for that food is deceptive” (Proverbs 23:1, 3).

He took another look at the food before him and saw it suddenly as if for the first time.  It was rich all right, but worms crawled all over it.  “So, these things were not what the vine was bringing me to after all,” he decided.  Just then, a wooden door behind the great chair burst open and a giant lumbered into the room.  Jack fell down in terror.

“Fee-fi-fo-fum!” roared the giant.  “I smell the blood of Adam’s son!  Though now he’s alive, he’ll soon be dead!  I’ll grind his bones to make my bread!”  The grotesque face of the giant looked about the room, until his eyes lighted upon Jack.  Chortling with glee, he leapt to where Jack stood and grabbed hold of his leg, holding him aloft and gloating over his prize.  “You’ll make a tasty morsel,” the giant sneered, and then popped him into a great stone jar and sealed it up tight with a stone lid.

Jack sat in the bottom of the jar regretting his foolish departure from the vine earlier.  It was completely dark and he felt utterly alone.  But then a tiny spark struck near his feet and, swirling up, lit what looked like a small wick of a lamp.  He wasn’t alone after all!  There beside him sat the man who had bought his cow and given him the seed!

“Now, Jack,” the man said reproachfully, “I don’t give you my messages just for you to ignore them.  When I said you must remain in the vine, I meant it!  Do you see some of the trouble that comes when you don’t remain in the vine?”

Jack humbly hung his head, but still smiled.  He welcomed the rebuke for it was well-deserved.  When he finally looked up, the man smiled in return and said, “He who obeys instruction guards his life, but he who is contemptuous of his ways will die” (Proverbs 19:16).

He reached down and pulled Jack to his feet.  “Now, back to the vine!”  Jack blinked and suddenly found himself again clinging to a branch of the bean stalk.  Again, he found a scroll before him.  It said, “I am the vine; you are the branches.  If a man remains in Me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing….  So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in Him, rooted and built up in Him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness” (John 15:5 Colossians 2:6-7).  He took the words to heart and began to climb again. 

“Keep seeking the things above,” he said to himself (see Colossians 3:1).  And as he climbed, he soon could see the very things he thought that he had found in the castle, hanging from different braches on the vine.  He not only found delicious morsels of food that sustained and strengthened him, but also great bags of seed that he knew would help his mother and neighbors.  He even found a harp for praise and thanksgiving, clinging to the vine as if it had grown there.  And his heart truly was lifted up in praise and thanksgiving, even as he climbed onward and upward.

(Thom Mollohan and his family have ministered in southern Ohio the past twelve years.  He is the pastor of Pathway Community Church, which meets on Sunday mornings at 455 Third Avenue.  He may be reached for comments or questions by email at pastorthom@pathwaygallipolis.com).