Pruned So We Can Bloom
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John 15:5-8
"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples
There are few things I detest more than weeding. It just seems so pointless, sometimes. They’re going to grow back anyway. No one notices that you’ve weeded—only if you haven’t! It’s dirty, tedious work and I often get myself poked or stuck while I’m attempting to pull the weeds up by the roots. A close tie on the “I don’t like to do it” list is pruning rose bushes!
We have a rose bed that had been neglected and a few the rose bushes were half-dead and woody, barely producing a single bloom each in a season. The bed was overgrown with weeds and had just generally been left to its own resources. Each of the last 2 years we’ve made half-hearted stabs at doing something in those rose beds.
This year has been the “year of the yard” for us! We have set about restoring the various flower beds to their original beauty, adding some beds of our own and planning out other projects and beginning our vegetable garden for next year. All this tedious, hot, even ache-and-pain-producing work has made me think about how God must feel about us.
We’ve spent countless hours working in our yard and while we see dramatic improvement, we still have so much to do. We’ve weeded, mulched, pulled up, pruned back, babied, nurtured, transplanted and watered. And yet, we know we’ll never really be finished. As soon as we get one area the way we want it, another area needs our attention. But we do it because we love the results.
I often wonder if that’s how God feels about us. No matter how much He has poured into us—the thought, the effort, the time—the breath of life for heaven’s sake!—there is still so much that needs work. That’s not God’s fault! It’s ours! Unlike the rose bushes and mulched beds and vegetables and grass in my yard, I have a choice to grow and produce fruit. I decide every day whether or not I will allow God to prune back and cut off the parts of me that are interfering with His plan for my life.
My rose bushes are thriving. But it wasn’t until I closely examined each branch, snipped and pruned off the dead parts, mulched, watered and cared for them that they showed new growth and, eventually, began to bloom prolifically. That’s what God does for us as well. Notice I said for us and not to us! It is a painful process, but it is for our growth and development. We’re the ones who put ourselves in the need of pruning in the first place!
Isn’t God wonderful that He patiently, continually, tenderly, mercifully, graciously prunes us and cares for us so we can grow to be more like Christ?
Mary
