The word vine here comes from a base of two words:

1) Amphoteros – meaning both of two, both one and other, and

2) Halon – a ground plot, i.e., a place in the field made hard after the harvest by a roller, where grain was threshed out

Jesus is the true vine and His Father is the gardener, or vinedresser. They are both one and other. Yet we as branches of the vine are also one with Christ. We remain in Him, live and receive our strength and power through Christ. It is a sacred continuum – God working through Christ the Vine to use us the branches to produce His fruit.

When I think of the description of the word halon, I see a place where we must, in obedience and surrender to the Vinedresser, put ourselves into His hands to be made useable. We must be worked through, broken and sifted to remove all that which is useless to His will in our lives. Just as the wheat kernels must be separated from the chaff, so must the very best part of us be separated from anything that hinders us from His plan.

Christ, even during that breaking and cleansing on the threshing floor, is with us. The Vine does not abandon His branches, He is there, giving us strength and hope even when it seems we are being “rolled over” by all that is going on in ourselves, our lives and world. We abide in that truth, we find peace in the connection to/in the Vine and Vinedresser, as we are molded into the purpose for which He made us..

Vine branches and wheat – grapes and wheat flour – wine and bread…we are the living representation of communion as we abide in Him and become vessels through which He creates fruit that will glorify Himself and increase the Vinedresser’s vineyard.