Pruning

When it comes to caring for plants, pruning has become one of my favourite things to do!

It really used to freak me out… I felt uncertain about what I was doing and, if I’m being totally honest, every time I had to prune my plants, it felt like I had failed them! If I had only just watered more, or in some cases watered less, then the leaves wouldn’t have died and I wouldn’t need to cut them off! I felt especially embarrassed and ashamed when I was taking care of plants I had inherited from my grandfather (who was basically a gardening wizard), and I needed to cut off not just leaves but branches.

I won’t pretend that grieving and extra emotions didn’t play a part in my mini gardening crisis, but what contributed even more to the stress of it all was my lack of experience. I simply didn’t know what was best for that ficus tree or how I should be caring for it.

Fast forward a couple years – and many, many more branches – I’m no longer feeling guilt or shame and actually find myself looking forward to the times I get to do some pruning! I’ve seen how it makes a positive difference for the tree and how it grows even quicker when I cut away the dead parts.

I’ve learned that as plants grow more and more, pruning becomes an essential part of caring for them. As counter-intuitive as it can seem to cut away parts of a tree that is growing, by removing the parts that aren’t doing as well, I am allowing more water and nutrients to go to the thriving parts of the plant! I get to make space for more growth to happen.

In John 15, Jesus gives his famous “I am the vine, you are the branches” lesson to the disciples. But at the very beginning, in the first two verses, he says this: “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.”

I’ve seen some of my plants grow all the way from being little shoots in water developing brand new root systems. I like to think I know them pretty well because I’ve seen them and cared for them all along… Can you imagine how much better God knows each and every one of us?! Can you imagine how much more joy and excitement it brings to his heart to prune away the things that keep us from being as healthy as possible??

As we continue to focus on our growth and maturity at LifeSpring, let’s also be mindful of the pruning process in our lives. There will be times we can see the areas that need to be cut off and there will be other times when we must depend on the Father to step in as the masterful Gardener.