The hardest part of being a gardener is the time for pruning. Sometimes, as a gardener we don't want to cut our plants or branches because we feel it will hurt the plant. At least that is how it was for me. But having read and watched so many videos on the importance of pruning, I see that it is a necessary hurt to be inflicted. It comes from a place of good intention not a bad one.
Just like with God. I've read the passages where Jesus speaks in parables of how the gardener cuts off dead branches or unproductive branches and prunes the productive ones. The cutting off of the branches puts back the energy or allocates the energy of the plant to a place where it should produce new growth. Without pruning, there can be no new growth. And with pruning, the growth comes back with a vigour because it sends a signal to the plant to push out new growth without the hassle of unproductive branches sucking the energy of the plant.
As with life, there are certain things that need to be counted as dead branches. Chapters that need closing, habits that need dropping and just a general letting go. It is not to say that those branches were useless but that they had run their course and the plant needs to concentrate on new growth in a new area of its life. Take for example a currant bush. It only produces fruit on the new growth. So, the old branches where last season's fruits hung should be cut back completely. This lets the plant concentrate its energy on producing more fruit on the new branches. Without the pruning, you will end up with a bush with not much fruit.
Sometimes, we need to focus our energy on what produces fruit in our lives. What is it that makes your life worth living? What would you focus your energy on that would give you back all the effort you put into it? What would make you happy?
These are questions that cannot be answered now but take a moment to look at your "tree". Where am I growing the most? Where am I bearing fruit? What branch should I cut off?
As a gardener, I look at my plants daily and see how they are growing. It is in this space of reflection that allows me see what needs to be done next. But the space must exist where one can reflect. In life, this may be the time of prayer. Prayer is not an ATM machine where you can ask God for favours. It is a space where you take stock of what has happened in the day and look back at all the blessings, challenges and opportunities for growth. It is a time to ask God "How can I glorify you with what I have? What needs pruning, what needs cutting? Where should I grow next?" Prayer is the space where pruning happens. It is in prayer that we learn to lift up to God the areas of our life that needs to be reviewed and whether indeed they should be cut or pruned.
I hope this Sunday, where in some countries the Feast of Ascension is celebrated, we can lift up our prayers to God and ask Him to prune us so that we can grow more vigorously and produce more fruit that will glorify Him.
