Hi, I'm Wyn Collier, and I'm reading a piece I wrote for our daily bread titled At Home in Jesus.

Several years ago, we brought home an adult black cat named Juno from the local animal shelter. Truthfully, I only wanted help finning our

mice population, but the rest of the family wanted a pet. The shelter gave us rigorous instructions

on how to establish a feeding routine that first week, so Juno would learn our house was his home,

the place he belonged and where he'd always have food and safety.

This way, even if Juno might roam, he would always eventually come home.

If we don't know our true home, we're forever tempted to roam in vain, searching for goodness, love, and meaning.

If we want to find our true life, however, Jesus said, abide in me.

Biblical scholar Frederick Del Bruner highlights how abide evokes a sense of family and home.

So Bruner translates Jesus' words this way,

Stay at home in me. To make this idea clear, Jesus used the illustration of branches attached to a vine.

Branches, if they want to live, must always stay at home, tenaciously fixed, abiding where they belong.

There are many voices beckoning us with hollow promises to fix our problems

or provide us some new wisdom or exhilarating future.

But if we're to truly live, we must remain in Jesus.

We must stay at home.

Today's our daily bread devotional scripture reading is from John chapter 15, verses 1 to 11.

I am the true vine, and my father is the gardener.

He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit,

he prunes, so that it will be even more fruitful.

You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.

Remain in me, as I also remain in you.

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