Pruning
The first passage of Scripture that came to life for me after receiving Christ as my personal Savior was John 15. I was in the midst of growing an incredible garden (Ray and I see this flower bed utopia quite differently). Every day Jenny, Todd and I would tend to our Winnie the Pooh wildflower garden. We watered, pulled weeds that crept in, fertilized and loved on our little patch of summer blooms. Our Winnie the Pooh garden flourished under the tender loving care of its caretakers. I can still smell the sweet aroma of wildflowers rising up and blowing through the arid winds of the Lubbock cottonfields. Sometimes it became necessary to cut the overgrowth because it became too crowded. It hurt to cut them back, but to make room for new growth, it was ncessary. That summer garden grew to be a beautiful little piece of heaven here on earth.
Our small group began discussing the blessing of pruning in John 15, my ears and my heart were so attentive. It was just like our little garden. In my simple understanding, I could see that in pruning me, God was not simply taking away, but making room to add in my life. I fell in love with vineyards from that day on as I learned the art of the pruning from the Vinedresser. I love that God sent us shortly after that lesson from the cottonfields of Lubbock to the vineyard country of California.
Today Ray and I read from John 15 once again. It’s amazing to me how much more that passage means to me all these years later. I am reminded that the pruning comes to those He loves so He can make room for the abundance that He has planned for us. These past weeks, the Lord has led me to take a hard look at some areas in my life, sometimes thinning out some of the overgrowth so the that the Son can reach down deep…often He’s been cutting down to the vine, that my branches be renewed in grace that the fruit that it produces is sweeter and more abundant.
Here on the Central Coast we get to see the beauty of Jesus’ teachings in the vineyards that surround us. Now that it is spring, the dead branches have been pruned, and new growth is beginning. The vinedresser will attentively tend the branches so that they are free to simply live under his loving care and grow into the spectacular harvest of fruit that awaits in fall.
Come Lord Jesus come! Tend to me that my fruit might be sweet and ripe at the harvest. Amen.
“I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more”.
John 15:1-2 NLT
