Pruning Season

Spring is one of my favorite seasons! Observing the way the warm sun gently kisses the dewy ground while ushering forth vibrant colors, the sound of birds singing, and beautiful blue skies; it enchants me. It's at this time my flower bed, hedges, and crepe myrtle demand my attention and I am more than happy to oblige. I love working outside in my flower bed and slowly seeing the fruit of my labor, but it hasn’t always been this way. Sweet friend, I’m the girl who potted a fake fern at our old house just a few short years ago to eliminate having to tend to it and keep it thriving. When we moved to our current home a couple of years ago the previous owner had already established a nice flower bed with flowering shrubs and I was ecstatic. In my mind that meant the outside work had been done and I was off the hook; oh sweet friend how wrong I was! As seasons came and went it was apparent that those once healthy plants were suffering due to my lack of knowledge of knowing how to tend to them properly. With some research and education, I started to understand that not all plants are the same, they have different needs and requirements when it comes to zones, sunlight, soil type, watering, fertilizing, and pruning.

Recently I have learned that pruning is one of those important steps that can make a huge impact on the health of my plants and the number of blooms they produce. If you were to look up the word prune in the dictionary, you would see it means “cutting away to increase fruitfulness and growth; removing unwanted parts”. To my sweet husband, who is not a gardening enthusiast, my pruning seems confusing and can appear harmful as though I'm destroying our plants; but in reality, I am helping set them up for rewarding growth/blooms. Over the past several weeks, while pruning various plants in my flower bed, the Lord reminded me of spiritual pruning and what scripture tells us in John 15:1-2. It says, “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.” Sweet friend as believers and followers of Christ Jesus we should expect to undergo spiritual pruning in our lives. Just as I have found it necessary to prune parts of my plants that are unhealthy, non-productive, structurally unsound, and restricting new growth; it is also necessary for our hearts to be pruned by our Heavenly Father to enhance our spiritual growth and better reflect His character. Spiritual pruning looks different for each of us, but the end goal is the same; to refine, strengthen, and spiritually mature us in our relationship with the Lord. As I stated before, pruning is the act of cutting away which means when it comes to God spiritually pruning our hearts there is going to be discomfort, even pain. This is because pain and suffering are part of our present sanctification. At times spiritual pruning may even feel like a punishment when in actuality it’s a reward for how fiercely loved we are by God. Sweet friend, He cares about us too much to leave us in the state we are in so He prunes back the parts that are unhealthy, structurally unsound, destructive, and that hinder our spiritual growth. Spiritual pruning may be a direct result of our sin, the sin of others, or simply because we live in a broken world. It might come in the form of a strained relationship, financial hardship, addiction, a failed marriage, infertility, illness, trauma, or grief/loss. When I think back to specific seasons of spiritual pruning in my own life, it was not without struggle and more often than not ended with me flat on my face on the floor. I also did not always want to be a willing participant in those pruning seasons but thankfully, God is faithful and He didn’t leave me face down on the floor and He can do the same for you. He can restore brokenness, replace pride with humility, break the strongholds of sin, exchange bitterness for forgiveness, provide peace over anxiousness, and bring beauty from ashes. Several weeks ago my azalea bushes would have made you skeptical of whether or not my pruning would produce even one bloom this spring. I can tell you my husband had his doubts but here it is nearing Easter and they both currently have several beautiful eye-catching blooms to show for it. Sweet friend, maybe you have felt skeptical of what God is pruning in your life and feeling as though you have little to no blooms left. If that is you then my prayer and hope are that you would remember who you belong to, a God who is caring, sovereign, trustworthy, and faithful to complete the work He has started in you; Philippians 1:6. May you take comfort in clinging to the promise that He is preparing a way for new growth and the beautiful blooms that are to come.