Pruning for God
Ann's Anecdotes
Stepping outside on what seems to be an autumn afternoon, I noticed the trees in my front yard. These are ornamental and lose their leaves fairly early in the season. Because the trees are planted in the front yard and close to the house, it is important to keep pruned correctly. When all the leaves are on, it can be a bit tricky to decide what stays and what gets lopped off. But when everything is stripped away, it presents a clearer picture. Growing in the middle of the tree are several little tiny limbs. These limbs rob the tree of nutrients, literally sucking the life out of the tree. They also bare leaves and can keep the sun from getting down deep into the middle. So this said, very soon it will be time to carefully prune the tree.
In the past, people didn't want their trees around the house to grow large, so every few years they would take a great big saw and just cut everything. This left the trunk and four or five large limb stubs. They looked horrible. And what homeowners thought was being beneficial, was actually causing more problems. Bunches of little limbs started growing from the stubs, none of which were strong. Additionally, water stayed in the cluster and caused rot. No one really likes leaf raking all that much and these trees produced tons more leaves. So in this effort to protect one's home, it was actually creating more trouble. We won't even discuss the practice of painting the bottom trunks of trees. I have no idea what that was about.
So what is all this talk of trees? It made me take pause to wonder what kind of "limb" am I and do I contribute to God's work or do I "hang out in the fringes" sucking the energy out of the effort? This seems harsh, but just as the tree sheds its leaves making the issues more visible, when we allow ourselves to be stripped of our Christian outer cover, we are available for careful pruning. And so the metaphor of the tree can apply to us as members of a church body, or it can be applied on a more personal level. What parts of my life are draining my Christian walk? Am I allowing God to prune those areas or am I just "growing wild and crazy"? If we are honest, there is probably more desire to be free to grow as we want than to step up and be pruned. The process can be quite painful, but in the end, we are sturdy, strong, and really, more flexible to move where God takes us.
So if we are willing to be individually pruned and begin to gain strength in the Lord, then we can think of ourselves as part of a grove of trees, with the grove representing the Church. So just as the Master Gardener takes care of every individual tree, He also takes care of the whole. If all the trees are growing and producing well, then we are in place to have a huge harvest. I believe God desires this harvest, but each of us has to be willing to allow the Gardener to have His way within our lives. Do I really want to be the one that keeps our church from meeting its potential for the Lord?
When the leaves fall from the trees, people often take lights or lanterns to keep them from looking so bare. And while the shimmer is pretty to look at, nothing takes the place of their summer and autumn beauty. (I started to put, Let's get naked for the Lord, but it just didn’t come our right...so) Let us use this season we are in to examine ourselves and to allow God to create in us what His vision is for our life, for His Church, for our world.
In the past, people didn't want their trees around the house to grow large, so every few years they would take a great big saw and just cut everything. This left the trunk and four or five large limb stubs. They looked horrible. And what homeowners thought was being beneficial, was actually causing more problems. Bunches of little limbs started growing from the stubs, none of which were strong. Additionally, water stayed in the cluster and caused rot. No one really likes leaf raking all that much and these trees produced tons more leaves. So in this effort to protect one's home, it was actually creating more trouble. We won't even discuss the practice of painting the bottom trunks of trees. I have no idea what that was about.
So what is all this talk of trees? It made me take pause to wonder what kind of "limb" am I and do I contribute to God's work or do I "hang out in the fringes" sucking the energy out of the effort? This seems harsh, but just as the tree sheds its leaves making the issues more visible, when we allow ourselves to be stripped of our Christian outer cover, we are available for careful pruning. And so the metaphor of the tree can apply to us as members of a church body, or it can be applied on a more personal level. What parts of my life are draining my Christian walk? Am I allowing God to prune those areas or am I just "growing wild and crazy"? If we are honest, there is probably more desire to be free to grow as we want than to step up and be pruned. The process can be quite painful, but in the end, we are sturdy, strong, and really, more flexible to move where God takes us.
So if we are willing to be individually pruned and begin to gain strength in the Lord, then we can think of ourselves as part of a grove of trees, with the grove representing the Church. So just as the Master Gardener takes care of every individual tree, He also takes care of the whole. If all the trees are growing and producing well, then we are in place to have a huge harvest. I believe God desires this harvest, but each of us has to be willing to allow the Gardener to have His way within our lives. Do I really want to be the one that keeps our church from meeting its potential for the Lord?
When the leaves fall from the trees, people often take lights or lanterns to keep them from looking so bare. And while the shimmer is pretty to look at, nothing takes the place of their summer and autumn beauty. (I started to put, Let's get naked for the Lord, but it just didn’t come our right...so) Let us use this season we are in to examine ourselves and to allow God to create in us what His vision is for our life, for His Church, for our world.
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