Fall In Love With The Gardener

I've discovered the secret to not dreading, despising the times of great pruning in our lives:

Fall in love with the Gardener.

When you love the Gardener, you won't scream when He steps through the tall weeds toward you with those huge hedge clippers.

Nor will you pull up your shallow roots and run, crying, toward a hiding place, hair caught in the brambles. You won't cower there and tell Him, "______ needs to be pruned--not me! He's the one with the problem."

Nor will you squeal, "Noooo! Don't prune that away. I adore that part of me. It's who I am, right?"

Fall in love with the Gardener and you'll have passion in the middle of the prunings, love in the middle of the surgeries, a shoulder to cry on when the pruning becomes humiliating, a heart to grow close to while parts of you are dying.

You'll prefer this Gardener, this Friend, who sticks closer than a brother (who gets busy or leaves). You'll have an encourager who is never out to lunch.

You'll have a God who comes down to your ever-changing, blossoming garden to walk with you in the cool of the evening.

And there is nothing, no one better than that.


******

"Any branch in Me that does not bear fruit [that stops bearing] He cuts away (trims off, takes away); and He cleanses and repeatedly prunes every branch that continues to bear fruit, to make it bear more and richer and more excellent fruit." John 15:2