My Mother can revive a virtually dead plant, she has that special touch; whereas, I can take a vibrant one and kill it within a week. I don’t know what it is, but in my effort to increase growth, I destroy it. I once pruned a bush so much that when I was finished all that was left behind were twigs and roots. It was awful, I had inadvertently killed it and all that I could do was rip it up out of the ground. So I grabbed the trunk and rocked it back and forth until the root ball loosened enough to pull the whole thing out and threw it in the trash. I do not have my Mother’s green thumb!
Admittedly, I know nothing about gardening, especially pruning. But I do know that pruning is a very unique process. It’s trimming back just to the point of making new growth possible. It’s not a ripping out, tearing up, or totally replacing something that is already growing.
Do we sometimes feel like we are being torn apart when God is pruning us? Do we feel like we’re being hacked to death and ripped up from our roots? Do we feel like God’s trying to do a number on us? Within the last week, my brand new car was damaged, my son’s car has broken down, my husband has been attacked and wrongly accused in the media, we were informed that we need a new roof on the house, unexplained illness has hit us, and yesterday, my 15 year old dog died! I am being pruned.
Through all of this, I am so glad that God knows what He is doing and He doesn’t prune like I do! His pruning is all about growth rather than death. The Lord is concerned with trimming back my life in order to produce more fruit. I am certain that His hand is upon me in these situations and though difficult times have come, God is doing what is needed in my life to help me grow and improve.
So, shouldn’t we all perceive God’s pruning shears to represent the promise of the good that is yet to come and know that He is forging us into who we need to be?
Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. John 15:2
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