When God Brings Us Through Seasons of Winter I love vineyards and the imagery Jesus uses in John 15, when He declares, "I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in Me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit..." More than anything, I want my life to be abundantly fruitful from an abiding relationship with Jesus. My heart was first captivated by the beauty of vineyards on train rides up the central coast of California to visit my oldest son at college. During those long trips, I began to ponder the passages in John's gospel more deeply... "for apart from Me you can do nothing." My window-seat view from the train was as close as I came to vineyards, until my husband and I attended a legal conference at a luxurious winery. The only problem, it was January. So, instead of rows and rows of lush, lovely vineyards, we were surrounded by brown, barren and knotted stumps. No grapes. No green leaves. No branches. There were just vines, pruned ba...