Looks like spring time is finally here!
On my walk today at lunch I noticed something interesting.
There are these bushes along the path that in the fall were trimmed down to nothing. They just look like stumps sticking up out of the ground with some branches that appear to have been carelessly cut clean off.
Yet, now, as the weather has warmed, small green buds are appearing on the cut branches. I'm sure that soon the bush will be full and alive again.
What looks to me like careless chopping is actually a skilled gardener's pruning.
Reading John 15 today.
"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." (vv 1-2)
Pruning in our life does not feel pleasant and can often look haphazard and careless.
The hard part, that we have to learn to do, is to trust that the Gardener knows what he is doing.
