The popular radio Bible teacher J. Vernon McGee once told about a little piece of wood that he kept on his desk. He explained that he took this small piece of wood from a vineyard in the San Joaquin Valley. The small piece of wood consisted of a section of a grapevine out of which grew a branch. The owner of the vineyard told McGee that if two people were to have a tug of war with this section of vine, it would break. However, it would never break where the vine and branch are joined together. The place on a grapevine where the vine and the branch are joined together is the vine's strongest point.

"Now if you pull on a branch that goes into a tree," the owner explained, "it will always break at the trunk of the tree - in a tree that is the weakest place. But in a grapevine that is the strongest point."

No wonder Christ used the analogy of the vine and its branches to explain his relationship with us, his followers. The strongest place on a grapevine is where the branches attach to the vine. In other words, we don't need to worry that our connection to Christ will be broken at least not from Christ's side. That connection is a powerful one.