the vines and the rain. a rumination on Biblical vineyard husbandry

The blessing has two parts; the soul seemingly has two parts: light and dark.  Christs mentions the believers as vines.  Unproductive vines are lifted up(cast away, is said in the King James), while producing vines are pruned to be even more productive.(Matthew chapter 7)

We all struggle, but there are the "productive", and those that are farther behind in the struggle:  God has comfort for either condition, and all have a function in the natursl world.

As with the rain early, which was good time for reflection, God gave the natural world something it needed to live, and now, mild temperatures and diffuse sunshine, dilluted by some thin cloud cover.

I could see the burgundy leaves of our plum tree, in the sunshine.  The leaves with their deep hue, and the obverse shade, but the trick, the miraculous is the mirror of light on the leaves that were touching the sunshine: call them productive vines, as Christ said of the better believers.  Sure he loved them all, but he also knew some needed yet more assistance in their spiritual walk.

Matthew chapter 6. Jesus on Prayer and Fasting.

"...when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly."

"But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly."

-Matthew ch 6