Gardening

I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.

Every branch in me that does not produce fruit he removes, and he prunes every branch that produces fruit so that it will produce more fruit.

John 15:1-2

Jesus tells us that he is the vine but God is the gardner. The vine is what produces the fruit - the one thing that explains our purpose for our life. Whether we produce fruit or not determines whether we have a reason to get up each morning and attack the day. The alternative is to wake up and just get through another stupid day.

The Gardner is the reason that life works. Without the gardner, the weeds take over and life becomes a mess.

Jesus is speaking about things (branches) that the Gardner removes and things (branches) that the Gardner prunes. There is a difference. Both hurt but one action removes an area of our lives that we are better without and one action chops an area of our lives back.

Look back at your life. What has God pruned? What branches has he removed? I suspect the removal of a branch or a pruning produced much pain. That’s inevitable yet, once we understand God (the Gardner) is the one that did it, we can maybe find some comfort. With enough time, maybe we can come to appreciate what the Gardner accomplished.

That’s the challenge! Appreciating the pain of removing something in our life or pruning back something that we might find is beneficial.

Who appreciates the pain of God’s chopping? The answer is anyone that trusts the Gardner with every aspect of his life. Anything short of that leaves one to continue to struggle with anger and hurt. Bad things come from that mindset. No man makes it through life without working through that struggle. Most probably fail pretty miserably.

Good fruit comes from the one that has figured out the purpose and the wisdom gained from the Gardner’s work.