"I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman" (Jn. 15:1).

Every human being needs a "master gardener" if he is to grow and live to the glory of God.  It was no different for our Lord.  He was truly a man and He said that His Father was His husbandman (gardener). 

He was the vine that His Father planted in the world, and oh, how He had to be pruned, to be crushed, and  to be cut into so that He could be the "tree of life" for all mankind.

His Father had to cut Him back to His root, and it certainly looked for awhile that He was dead forever.  But from that root grew a new tree - a tree of life, filled with fruit that if one eats of it, he (or she) will live forever. 

The world's greatest blessing was the world's greatest sorrow ever seen.

Dear reader, you may have many sorrows in this world, but there never was any sorrow like the Lord's sorrow.  He says to all of us, "Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by?  behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger" (Lam. 1:12). 

His Father had to cut Him back to the ground so that we might live and feed on His fruit forever.

Oh come, come one, come all, and taste the sweetness of His fruit - His love, His joy, His peace, His longsuffering, His kindness, His goodness, His faithfulness, His gentleness, His self-control (Gal. 5:22-23). You will then say the same words as His beloved. "As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons.  I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste" (S.O.S. 2:3).

This is the cure - this is the medicine - this is His fruit.  Eat much of it and you will go on your way rejoicing, now, and throughout eternity, even as David did when he was in the wilderness (Psa. 63:1-7).