Christian marriage,
motherhood, keepers at home, Titus 2, encouragement news letter
Pruning
pamela spurling
Dearest
sisters… I’ve been thinking of you and praying that God is
blessing, guiding, providing and protecting your hearts and minds,
your families and your homes. These have been busy days around our
home – no doubt, it’s the same with you and your family. Well, I
wrote this blog entry this morning and would like to share it with
you here. I pray you’ll be encouraged. God bless you as you walk
with Him, hand in Hand.
Pruning
The view from my kitchen sink seems not to have changed all that
much for several months now. No leaves on the trees, no fruit on the
vines, no blooms on the canes. Seemingly dead bushes and trees. But
this morning I imagined a symphony rehearsing what will be a
spectacular performance in a few short weeks from now. It’s as if
the whole earth is rumbling –getting ready for the pageantry of
spring. The sun even seems to be eagerly anticipating the
presentation of the spectacular!
The days are longer — several more minutes every day add to the glow
of the evenings. I see the canes of the many bushes in my rose
garden… I picture the pinks, whites, peaches, yellows and reds. I
smile as I anticipate coming mornings where I will walk around to
smell the roses and see each day’s handiwork of the Lord. I can
almost feel the warmth of the sun on my face and nearly squint at
the hope of the brightness of the sunshine.
But first… pruning. Soon, I’ll go out to cut back the unproductive
canes, the thickest and seemingly best and strongest canes and the
work will appear to have destroyed each rosebush. Each year as I
prune the roses, I have this nearly gasping feeling that maybe this
year the pruning will yield results opposite to my intent — and that
intent is abundance of blooms and healthy plants - the deeper the
pruning, the more prolific the yield - it will seem that the whole
bush will be sacrificed. I used to give in to the feeling that
taking away or deeply pruning canes would result in fewer beautiful
roses since the canes would be fewer and shorter. So, in another
of my many
lessons from
the garden, in those years there were very few roses
and the bushes were diseased and weren’t beautifully full of rich
shades of green leaves and buds.
I suppose it’s much like the children of Israel wondering if they
will be protected, fed and led by the Lord. Doubting God. They chose
their own way, they reasoned they knew better than God what was best
for them. We often doubt that God will do what He has said He will
do.
Well, I suppose that a garden of fragrant blooms isn’t exactly a
promise of the Lord, but He has demonstrated to me, countless times
over the years, His ways in the garden are pictures for me of His
ways in my life, in my heart and in my home. The doubting He will
guide and provide, the wondering if He is seeing and hearing and
then the experiencing of His deep pruning the foolish, wasteful,
unproductive areas of my life. Well, that’s the same with the
roses. I love the Lord— and see His tender care for, in my life as
in my garden, the deeper the pruning the sweeter the blooming.
I smiled as I read today’s
Streams in the Desert… as God would have it, the devotion was on
the importance of pruning. :o) God is sweet to me — always
demonstrating His presence and confirming His ways.
So, here’s today’s Stream… may you be blessed as I am in the reading
of it:
Pruned to Yield Fruit
"And
every branch that beareth fruit he purgeth it, that it may bring
forth more fruit”
(John 15:2).
A child of God was dazed by the variety of afflictions which seemed
to make her their target. Walking past a vineyard in the rich
autumnal glow she noticed the untrimmed appearance and the luxuriant
wealth of leaves on the vines, that the ground was given over to a
tangle of weeds and grass, and that the whole place looked utterly
uncared for; and as she pondered, the Heavenly Gardener whispered so
precious a message that she
would fain pass it on:
“My dear child, are you wondering at the sequence of trials in your
life? Behold that vineyard and learn of it. The gardener ceases to
prune, to trim, to harrow, or to pluck the ripe fruit only when he
expects nothing more from the vine during that season. It is left to
itself, because the season of fruit is past and further effort for
the present would yield no profit. Comparative uselessness is the
condition of freedom from suffering. Do you then wish me to cease
pruning your life? Shall I leave you alone?” And the comforted heart
cried, “No!”
–Homera Homer-Dixon
It is the branch that bears the fruit,
That
feels the knife,
To prune
it for a larger growth,
A fuller
life.
Though every budding twig be lopped,
And every
grace
Of
swaying tendril, springing leaf,
Be lost a
space.
O thou whose life of joy seems reft,
Of beauty
shorn;
Whose
aspirations lie in dust,
All
bruised and torn,
Rejoice, tho’ each desire, each dream,
Each hope
of thine
Shall
fall and fade; it is the hand
Of Love
Divine
That holds the knife, that cuts and breaks
With
tenderest touch,
That
thou, whose life has borne some fruit
May’st
now bear much.
–Annie Johnson Flint
I receive the
Streams in the Desert by email each day, but am so blessed to
have an original 1925 copy of the book, Streams in the Desert by
Mrs. Chas E. Cowman, right here on my desk. The book was my
father-in-law’s and that, I suppose, makes it even more meaningful
to me. It’s a book very well worth searching for. There are newer,
edited versions of this daily devotional. I just love the old books
best.
with love and thanks to the LORD Jesus,
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©A Christian Home ~
Letters To My Sisters ~ 2008 |