Pruned

I spend a good part of every summer doing yard work.  I enjoy working outside on those cool, balmy mornings of early summer, or in the early evening after a brief summer rainstorm has freshened the air and brought a cooling breeze. This summer, I seem to have spent more time than usual pruning bushes.

I don't usually mind pruning.  I like to see the transformation that results when I lop off the dead branches, leaving just the healthy, green branches that will bear fragrant flowers or luscious fruit.

This year, I spent several days trimming the bushes that used to grow in the shade of the big, old hackberry that we had to remove last fall.  Unfortunately, the people who cut down the tree could only promise that they would not damage our house.  They gave no thought to the low-lying bushes that occupied a flower bed near the injured tree.  So, they drove their heavy truck right over the bushes, and trampled them thoroughly as they worked to remove the tree.

As spring burst upon us, it seemed like most of the bushes' branches were dead.  They were pretty sorry-looking, that's for sure.  I was afraid that the bushes would have to be replaced.  But, I decided to try some radical pruning before I gave up on the bushes.  After all, they had survived many years of drought, and had finally begun to thrive in our backyard.  They might be worth saving.

So, I started by cutting off the obviously dead branches.  It took several hours a day for three or four hot, sweaty days.   When I finally finished, I wasn't really satisfied with the appearance of the bushes.  Green, spiky branches stuck up into the air in random places where they didn't really belong.  So, I gritted my teeth, and began to remove some of the healthy branches.  Pretty soon, the bushes were looking much better.  There were a few bare spots, to be sure, but most of the dead wood was gone, and the bushes were shaped much better than they had been.  I still wasn't sure they were worth saving, but it was worth a try.

That was two months ago.  Since then, our sunshine and this summer's abundant rain have worked together to magically transform those sorry-looking bushes into something I never expected.  Now, they are lush and leafy bushes, completely healthy again.

Did you ever stop to think that God sometimes prunes our "branches," too?  He cuts out the unproductive parts of our lives to make room for new, more fruitful things to bloom.  The process is often painful for us.  Few of us really appreciate unexpected change in our lives.  We usually protest loudly, holding on tightly to those old, dead "branches."  We scream even louder when he removes those things in our lives that seem to be healthy, never stopping to think that he may have something much better in store for us.  Sometimes even good things have to go to make room (or time) for better things.

In the fifteenth chapter of John, Jesus says, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.  He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful... Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.  I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing."

Just as my bushes have thrived after being pruned, we, too, will blossom when we submit to God's pruning shears.