Gardener

John 15:1–2 (NIV84)

“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.

Good morning Zebras,

I am not a gardener and I don’t even pretend to be.  I’m the type of person who kills every plant that has ever been given to them.  So I am always impressed when I see someone who really understands how to make things grow, like Steve.

Steve is a landscaper.  He redid our yard about five years ago and it looked amazing.  But after a few years of helping us keep the yard looking nice Steve moved away and Dan stepped in to help.

But Dan was just a “hired hand.”  He hadn’t designed and planted our yard.  He didn’t love our yard; to him it was just a job.  So it looked okay, but slowly over time it faded from its former glory.

Then Steve returned.  He took one look at our yard and started in to “fix it.” 

By the time he was done he had trimmed or removed every bush and tree in the yard.  And the difference was incredible.  Without all the overgrown limbs, bushes and dead leaves, each one of the plants that are left look so much better.  There is definitely less foliage in our yard now but it also looks a lot better.

Of course Steve isn’t finished.  He is just waiting till spring to plant some bushes to replace the ones he ripped out.  Bushes, he said, that had reached their maturity and needed to go.  They were either too large for the space or they had been allowed to grow unchecked for so long that they would never be what they could have been if they had been pruned and shaped as they grew.

And it reminded me of life. 

We fill our lives with tons of things, activities and events and it quickly gets overgrown.  Things that should be a “small accent plant” grow totally out of control and take over because we don’t keep them in check.  And the thing that should be front and center gets pushed out and forgotten.

Six times in four gospels God basically says: “I MUST be first! Nothing in your life should be bigger than Me. Not your family, not your ministry not your job, nothing.” 

And, I have found from personal experience, if that’ s really the desire of your heart, God will come in and prune your life, taking out things you never expected and then replanting it with new things that are even better than what wes originally there-all for His honor and glory.

Love,

Jill