Bound, Twisted Together, and Held Fast

Could a twisted vine possibly illuminate a Biblical concept? I was amazed at this eye-opening notion which began as a routine Bible reading in my daily devotional walk with God. However, when I use my Hebrew-Greek Key Study Bible, my study rarely remains routine. Because the lexicon and concordance are conveniently located in the back, I often stop to look up the underlined key words in a text. Many times I think I must surely know the meaning of this simple, familiar word, only to find shades of meaning that had never occurred to me. As a result the whole verse is easier to understand and often proves to be a greater blessing to me and others.

My reading that day took me to Psalm 27:14, "Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord." The word "wait" was underlined, and I almost didn’t bother to look it up. I knew what wait meant­idly sitting by and looking down the road, up the trail, or wherever we hoped the object of our waiting would appear.

I was surprised at the basic Hebrew meaning of wait: "to bind together by twisting, to be joined." Over the next few weeks I thought often of this binding together action. I remembered that it begins with our heavenly Father, whose gracious long-suffering provides the vine of love and tender mercy. "I am the vine, you are the branches, . . ." (John 15:5). Somehow my previous mental picture­that sturdy vine (God the Father) with me as a branch attached at a right angle­needed altering. Soon I discovered an answer in the handiwork of the Creator. Outside my office window, a mere 25 feet away, was a short length of grapevine where the mature stock was joined only two feet from the ground by a well-developed branch. But this branch did not extend away from the parent stock at my preconceived right angle; rather it hugged the parent stock of the vine and twisted around it.

As I sketched the simple grapevine (such a familiar object lesson taught by Jesus Himself), every twist of the branch spoke to my heart. Scripture that carried this binding and twisting together use of the word "wait" took on new meaning as I substituted this definition every time I found the word with the same reference number. Psalm 27:14 told me, "Wait (be bound and twisted together) on the Lord: be of good courage, . . . ," I better understood that He binds me to His merciful love, He fills me with courage, and in turn my heart is girded with strength.

As I continue to walk with God, other trials come, but He supports me in trial and delay, in hunger and disappointments, enabling me to be bound quietly with confidence around Him. "For thus says the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel: ŒIn returning and rest shall you shall be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength’. . ." (Isaiah 30:15). That leaning and resting on Him continues to bind me closer to the Parent vine.

The closeness I experience braces me for yet another encounter with the enemy; I quietly wait, leaning heavily on Him, now filled with hope. "It is good that one should hope and wait (be bound and twisted together) quietly for the salvation of the Lord" (Lamentations 3:26). Is it any wonder that since we have twisted around Him so many times during the trials that we have only one thing to say when we see Him coming in glory? We can only exclaim: ". . . Behold, this is our God; we have waited (been bound and twisted together) for Him, and He will save us. This is the Lord; we have waited (been bound and twisted together) for Him; we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation" (Isaiah 25:9).

In a separate experience during a walk with Him, I nearly missed a similar object lesson while softly crunching my way through some squeaky sand on an ocean beach. Teasing waves as I crept up on the retreating sea often sent me scurrying shoreward, but my desire for treasures pulled me back toward the ocean’s foam frothing over various objects at the high tide line. One object caught my attention. I picked it up, and I found this strange tiny clump of seaweed attached to a small piece of coral which was made even more intriguing when I discovered a small dead crab that clunked from one side to the other inside the hollow base. With some effort I freed the carcass from its prison. But what was this newly acquired sea object, I wondered? I took the strange plant-coral object home to rest on my kitchen windowsill.

Friends and visitors repeated that, "What is it?" question many times over the next five years. I would shrug and point out that the top looked very much like seaweed, and what appeared to be roots held the seaweed firmly to a base of coral. It held so firmly that tugging on the seaweed was useless; they seemed as one. After hearing the story of the imprisoned crab, the visitors would typically return the little object to my windowsill.

Eventually, a trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California some months later helped to solve the puzzle about my object. The aquarium boasts a three story tank where grand, elegant seaweed (kelp), attached to the rocks at the bottom of the tank, sways gracefully through all three stories of sea water. Visitors at the top floor look down on the tops of the seaweed that bob on the surface in the same way that they do in real ocean currents.

The tops, however, did not fascinate me as much as the seaweed anchors. No matter how much simulated current tugged at the huge sea plants, the big bulbs at the base stayed firmly rooted in one spot (held by familiar rootlike fingers that were on my coral formation). The sign on the tank explained what I needed to know; "This root system is known as a holdfast." At last I would be able to answer those "What is it?" questions.

More questions remained. Why does it attach to coral? What is the relationship of the coral and the root systems? This sparked a renewed and accelerated interest in nature study­not nature study for the sake of enjoying nature itself or for the satisfaction of becoming more knowledgeable, but nature study for its relationship to Bible truth. If God is the Creator of every object on earth, and if He is the author of the Bible, wouldn’t it be logical that one would shed light on the other? The answer came unexpectedly one morning while I was reading Colossians 1:11 which talks about power. I thought I knew what power meant, but I stopped to look up the meaning in the original Greek. While the meaning seemed to convey familiar ideas of vigor or strength, I found a close relative of this root word which meant to hold fast.

Hold fast! Immediately I thought of my seashore artifact on the window sill. I knew what a holdfast was! I looked at it every day. I read Colossians 1:11 again; ". . . strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power (hold fast), for all patience and longsuffering with joy." A new picture began to emerge in my mind of the glorious assistance my Savior bestows on my daily life.

This was only the beginning. Thrilled with this new insight, I took my window sill decoration to a wooded camp retreat. Surely there would be an opportunity to share this exciting illustration of God’s power. One sermon during the retreat particularly held my attention. The speaker centered on God’s part in enabling us as Christians to live for Him. The thoughts presented were helpful and encouraging, but I knew my little real-life illustration would tell the story in a way that these listeners would never forget. I would not interrupt the speaker, but I prayed for the best way to share God’s preserved parable in a more casual way.

At the end of the service I ran to my cabin and retrieved the holdfast. By the time I had panted back up the hill to the dining room, most of the campers had filled their plates and were sitting at tables with their noon meal. Now was the time! Moving to a table, I set the holdfast in the center and waited for the attention of those seated there. All eyes went to this strange, dried-up, not-so-beautiful object. "What is it?" someone asked. In a few sentences I told them where I found it and what it was. I told them how I learned its name and how it made Colossians 1:11 live for me. When their interest was at its peak, I picked up the holdfast and walked away to repeat the story at the next table.

God wasn’t finished teaching me through this nature lesson, however. Five years of drying on my window ledge (plus constant handling now) finally did something to what was formerly a "like one" with a strong bond between the seaweed and its coral foundation. The roots no longer clasped the base tightly, and the seaweed felt as though it would come off at any time. Somehow I knew all along that the base accommodated the roots (called stipes) which were not really roots in the sense of gathering nourishment as in land plants; the job of the stipes was simply to hold on! Before I left camp the next morning, the little seaweed completely fell off its base. Now I could more plainly see the little grooves that were exactly the same shape and length as each individual stipe.

How much this was like the Lord of heaven (the Rock of our Salvation) Christ Jesus. Not only is He firm and solid, but He provides the anchor points where we can attach and become one with Him. Perhaps more importantly, I knew why the seaweed no longer remained attached to its own rock. For five years its feet shriveled and dried with no life-giving water to replenish the original vigor, size, and fullness of the stipes. Those penetrating grippers, once firm and tenacious when immersed and washed in the water, were now shrunken, brittle, and insecure. The water of life no longer enabled them to do their part in sinking into the rock.

Here was power at its best­the bonds of a relationship where plant, water, and foundation solidly flourish together. But once separated from the water, all parts suffer. Each decision, each trial of the Christian is another opportunity for him to cling to the Rock a little deeper. But only in the presence of the Holy Spirit washing every move with fresh, life-giving water will the bond become as one. The strength of the Rock becomes the solid and stable foundation of the Christian. The Christian’s faith is strengthened by His faithfulness, which in turn becomes the Christian’s power to trust Him fully and completely, sinking every fiber into Him­to hold fast.

Now, several texts of Scripture take on new meaning. When I see the words "hold fast," I recall the way my little oddity from the seashore looked the day it washed up on the beach at my feet. New life is given to Hebrews 3:6, "but Christ as a Son over His own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end." In Revelation 2:25 there is the admonition, "But hold fast what you have till I come." With a bond of oneness with the Rock, there is power that is impervious to the storms of life. Unlike the holdfast in my window, the Rock we cling to (and are a part of) is never dislodged during a violent storm, and as long as we are bound to Him, we are held fast with the power that created the universe.

So now I can walk boldly with my Lord, knowing that if I wait (bound and twisted together) and hold fast, I will not be forsaken; rather I will be one with Him who longs for an eternal bond that will never be broken.

Ellen Dana writes from Southern Washington where she assists in providing materials for homeschoolers. She spends many of her off hours studying the wonders of Creation to share with others.