Inside: Have you ever lived through a pruning season and wondered why it happened? I have, and here’s what it’s teaching me about God’s work in our lives. ~

A few weeks ago, I decided it was time to prune the impatiens that were overflowing the strawberry planter on my front porch.

It always pains me a bit to cut back lush foliage and lovely flowers anywhere in my yard. But these impatiens were starting to get in the way of the front door, and they desperately needed the haircut I gave them.

I’ve thought about pruning a lot this summer, the kind that occurs in my flowerbeds as well as in our lives. On a spiritual level, Jesus’s words in John 15:1-2 come to mind:

“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.”

Struggling to Understand

After my bike accident last year, I often felt like I had gone through a hard pruning. Through many months of recovery, it seemed as if significant parts of my life had been cut way back, and I struggled to understand why.

I still don’t have many answers, but my recent ponderings about pruning have settled my heart about this.

For starters, it occurred to me that plants don’t choose when they are pruned, or why. That’s up to the gardener to decide.

Why Pruning Happens

Pruning is necessary to remove dead wood, of course, but that’s not the only reason for it. Sometimes, plants—like the impatiens on my porch—simply grow too big and need to be trimmed back to fit their allotted space.

Pruning also is used to reshape plants or shrubs, as well as to make room for something else. For example, Randy recently rebuilt the gate to our backyard. When he took down the adjoining fence, I had to cut back a clematis growing on an attached trellis because it was right where he was working.

In any of these cases, the pruning can be severe. When done correctly, however, the plants are usually fuller and healthier when they grow back.

Spiritual Application

I’m an amateur gardener, at best. Even with help from YouTube, I don’t always know the best way to do this kind of task. I hope for the best and gain more confidence each time I wield my pruners.

God, on the other hand, is our sovereign Master Gardener. When He prunes His children—the branches abiding in the true Vine, according to John 15—He absolutely knows what the end result will be. Whether He is removing dead wood or pruning to produce more fruit, His purposes will be fulfilled.

In a spiritual sense, we might think of pruning as punishment. But lately, what I’ve come to understand more deeply is this: I’m not punishing my plants when I prune them; I’m helping them. I’m giving them a chance to thrive.

Divine Pruning

The same is true for God’s pruning work in our lives, whatever it looks like. It could be a form of discipline, lovingly carried out by a heavenly Father who knows what we need—or don’t need, as the case may be—to thrive. But the cutting back also could be necessary to prepare us for some future work assignment, ministry or relationship we can’t even imagine right now.

The truth is, we might not understand why pruning happens to us. It could be painful for a time—perhaps a very long time. And we don’t always know how everything will turn out.

But again, God knows.

And as Philippians 1:6 promises, when He begins a good work in us, He will “carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

Let’s both remember that truth next time we feel the pressure of the divine pruning shears in our lives and hearts.

♥ Lois

P.S. I’m linking up this week with InstaEncouragements and Let’s Have Coffee.