Vines

More often than not I have associated vines with parasitic tendencies, and that’s probably because more often than not they exhibit them. I am quite acquainted with the illustrious vines that slink up the sides of pine trees unawares, ever seeking to summit to the canopy and soak in the glorious sun. It is the productive, fruitful vine that the ancient world would have been more familiar with, particularly in the ancient Near East context. That is to say, when referring to the vine, Scripture most often is referring to the grapevine - and the quite literal one, not the metaphorical one that secrets are transmitted through. Productive vines with productive grapes were crucial to a thriving if not surviving economy where they were one of the primary cash crops of the region; not to mention excess of which could make heart glad when they were being productive enough to allow the owners and workers to have wine from their own vineyards. If the wine ran out the party stopped in this context, that is unless someone could work a literal miracle and turn water into wine. If someone could do this, they may as well have the authority to refer to themselves as the true Vine. And being cut off from the true vine, the very one that gives all of existence its life and vitality, would be death. Forgetting that Vine would lead to a harvest ultimately worth nothing.
“You have forgotten God your Savior; you have not remembered the Rock, your fortress. Therefore, though you set out the finest plants and plant imported vines, though on the day you set them out, you make them grow, and on the morning when you plant them, you bring them to bud, yet the harvest will be as nothing in the day of disease and incurable pain.” (Isa. 17:10-11)