The Rare Vine

A young woman who was a great lover of flowers had set out a rare
vine at the base of a stone wall. It grew vigorously but it did not blos-
som. Day after day she cultivated it and watered it and tried in every
way to coax it into bloom. One morning as she stood disappointed

before it, her invalid neighbor, whose back lot adjoined her own, called
over and said, “You cannot imagine how much I have been enjoying the
blooms of that vine you planted.” The owner looked and on the other
side of the wall was a mass of bloom. The vine had crept through the
crevices and flowered luxuriantly on the other side. There is a lesson for
every Christian here. So often we think our efforts thrown away because
we do not see their fruit. We need to learn that in God’s service our
prayers, our toil, our crosses are never in vain. Somewhere they bear
their fruit and some heart will receive their blessing and their joy.