Embraced into the vine

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When we were baptized, we were given a new name: Branch.

At the Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd in south Minneapolis, a bronze sculpture hangs above the baptismal font. Life-Tree, by the late Paul T. Granlund, is based on John 15:5, "I am the vine; you are the branches.” It depicts a tree with four branches growing out of a central trunk. Each branch represents a stage of human life: a woman cradling an infant, an agile and ebullient youth, a mature female, an aging male approaching the end of life and curling again into a fetal position. The central trunk is a reverse relief: a rising Christ, with arms extended skyward, pressed into the body of the tree—the tree's very life and form.