A Lesson in Pruning
Here is another instalment of “Lessons Learned Lately.” This was written at the end of August, after moving into our Harbour House but before baby boy arrived. It never ceases to amaze me at God’s timing. While this was written nearly 5 months ago, I needed to be reminded of these truths tonight. I pray it is timely for you too.
My parents came through town this week for a few days, to visit and see the girls, and also to see the new house. It was a precious time, filled with reading stories, building puzzles, good food, and shopping consignment for baby boy clothes.
My step-dad Darren is quite a handy man, so it wasn’t long before he had a screwdriver in hand. He was tightening fridge handles, making a plan on how to stop the shower downstairs from soaking the floor any time it was used, cleaning under fridges…
And my mom… well the first evening she was here, as she walked around the yard, she saw beneath the overgrown mess and saw the potential. So when my in-laws dropped over the tools she requested, she got to work pruning and clearing. It doesn’t take an experienced gardener to tell that at one point in time the yard here at Harbour House was well loved and well cared for. But it had been neglected. The bushes had been allowed to grow unpruned and untamed.
As she began to cut back and prune we discovered various treasures. A small oak tree seedling that was somehow thriving. A rhododendron completely engulfed by the neighbouring bushes, also somehow thriving.
There were two bushes in particular that really stood out to me, that gave me a timely reminder.
The first was one of the bushes that was left to grow wild, without the yearly trimming. On the outside, it looked lush and green, an outer appearance of thriving. But when my mom began to cut it back, what was revealed underneath were dried branches with no growth. Some were even dead. Because it had been given no shape, no direction, no pruning, it had grown in ways that were not best for the bush.
My mind immediately went to the Christian journey. Our church right now is working through John 15, where Jesus talks about us being the branches connected to His vine, and God is the vine dresser, the one who does the pruning. We need to be pruned. We don’t like to be pruned. It hurts. It doesn’t feel good to be corrected. But as Jesus clearly states, it’s the only way that we can then bear fruit. It’s like this bush: without God’s pruning in our life, without His guidance and cutting away of things that are not important, we may appear pretty on the outside while in reality we are beginning to dry up and die on the inside.
The second bush appeared dead. In the jungle of green, this one stood out. Grey, dried branches with nothing on it. Dead. And so my parents went to pull it out. But as they chopped closer and closer to the ground and the roots, my mom noticed new growth growing up from the roots. They carefully cut around it, taking away what was dead, and leaving the new the space to grow and catch the light.
No story is unredeemable. No one person has gone too far for God. Even when it appears all is lost and hope is dead, Our master gardener is careful to cut away what is dead and bring about new life. The story is never over.
And in this season of change and trial and transition, I need to be reminded of both those lessons. To surrender myself to the gardeners pruning, even if it hurts. I’d rather be bearing fruit than slowly drying on the inside. He will cut away what is no longer useful. And I can hold onto the truth that He is not done with me yet. The story isn’t over. In Him, there is new life.
I love the yard here at the Harbour House. From the wild roses, to the magnolia trees, the hazelnut trees, the tall true cedar, and the little oak sapling… every plant and every tree (and every spider that has built its home in the branches) declares to me God’s creativity and His faithfulness, His attention to detail, and His ongoing redemptive work.