Jonah Vines

I was reading through Jonah today, and I was struck by what I read in chapter four, verses 6-11:

"Then the Lord God provided a vine and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the vine. But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the vine so that it withered. When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah's head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, 'It would be better for me to die than to live.'
But God said to Jonah, 'Do you have a right to be angry about the vine?'
'I do,' he said. 'I am angry enough to die.'
But the Lord said, 'You have been concerned with this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned with that great city?

As I was reading and rereading this particular chapter, I started to ask myself, what are the vines in my own life? What is it that I am so concerned about and think belong to me, when in reality, are gifts from the Lord? They are vines that He tended and caused to grow -- not me. And, yet, so often I focus upon these vines as though they are mine -- as though I own them. How easy it is for the vine to seize the vision. But I don't own the vines. He gave them. He can take them. I belong to Him. All that I have and all that I am is His. May I not be like Jonah that I become so preoccupied with the vine(s) that I lose sight of the "more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left" on the UW campus, the Ave, the grocery store, Greenlake, etc. My God is a compassionate and gracious God -- and as His child, I want my life to be an expression and an extension of that as well. The vines are good. But His compassion and vision is preoccupied with people, not the vine. May it be so in me.