Tag Archives: pruning

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Trimming Back

It has cooled off here in the mountains so I have started working outside again. I love it! Fall is such a lovely time in our area and the cool air just makes me want to stay out in all the beauty and soak it in.

Phil got me a new tool – a battery operated hedge trimmer. It has been so easy to use and I have been trimming up a storm. Some of our shrubs haven’t been attended to in so long that I had to trim in stages. I would cut back a bit, gather the trimmings so I could see what was left , then cut some more. The end result is plants that look neater, but are also healthier.

The old dead stuff has been cut away.

As I was doing this work in our yard, I felt a Spiritual lesson being impressed on me. (This is often the case with me – I feel God’s presence so closely in my garden)

What old, dead stuff am I clinging to?

In thinking about this, I realized that we humans can cling tenaciously to traditions, beliefs, and even forms of worship that no longer bring life to us spiritually. That is because once a branch or limb is disconnected from the trunk or stem, it starts to die.

If our spiritual life is not connected to Jesus, the True Vine, what may have once been spiritually beneficial will soon die.

In John 15:1-4 Jesus is instructing His disciples just before He will be taken to die on the cross. Jesus wants these 12 men He has poured His life into to REMAIN connected to Him, even as He dies, is buried, and rises again.

So, Jesus says –

15 “I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 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. 3 You have already been pruned and purified by the message I have given you. 4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me.

The challenge for me is to remain connected to Jesus, and allow Him to cut out anything that won’t produce fruit.

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In My Garden with God

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Many of us who seek to truly fellowship with God have a place where we sense His presence more fully then we do in other places. I am not referring here to times of corporate worship where God’s presence certainly is evident.   John 2 tells us “He inhabits the praises of His people”.

I mean that place where we sense God and know that feeling is Him. I have two friends that have told me they feel this way at the beach. They love to walk along the water, feel the breeze and salt air, and bask in His presence. Others feel that presence hiking or fishing.

One of my all time favorite lines in a movie is in Chariots of Fire when Olympic runner, Eric Liddlle, tells his sister why he runs. “When I run, I feel God’s pleasure.”

I feel God’s presence in our garden.

That may seem strange to write about gardens now when we have had such very cold temperatures and the plants are dormant. Let me explain.

We had a big snow last month and the snow was wet and heavy. It broke off several branches, particularly large branches in a weeping willow tree that grows next to the creek. Phil was out cutting up some of the downed trees and I asked him to trim the broken parts of that tree. He did so, even though it is one of his favorite trees.

If we had left the broken branches dangling from the tree, come spring it would be an unsightly mess. The dead limbs along side the fresh new leaves of spring would ruin the natural beauty of that graceful weeping willow.

As I was hauling the cut limbs to toss over the bank, (I LOVE living in the mountains), I sensed God impressing me with this truth – “That is why I have to prune my children.”

That thought took me on a flight of spiritual insight. God has to “cut away” the dead, broken, damaged parts of our lives so that new, healthy growth can take place in the right season. Right now, during winter, all our plants are dormant, but we don’t dig them up and throw all the plants away! Good things are happening!

Dormancy is crucial in the life of plants. They rest, develop deeper roots, and take in moisture. Pruning at this time allows the plant to have fewer branches, so the limited energy of the plant goes to strengthening what is left.

God does that to His children.

Jesus says in John 15: 1- 4

“I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 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. 3 You have already been pruned and purified by the message I have given you.4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me.

When I feel like God is cutting away, pruning my life, I must trust that as the Master gardener, He knows what He is doing.

I must wait to see what appears in spring……