I was helping mom prune a tree recently and while working on it with the garden loppers (the very ones pictured here) I immediately connected the tree pruning with the pruning that God has been doing in my life, like he speaks of in John 15:1-17.
Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. v2.
I was thinking about how we must be so dependent on Christ alone and not the extra things we get so easily attached to, whether they may be ‘good’ or not.
Eveything is stripped away.
Masks removed. Motives revealed. Purified, refined through fire.
For me what it has looked like is holding tightly to Christ and trying to let nothing else matter, in this time of unemployment…of searching for direction…and even though I have felt like I was wandering in circles, lost confused, and even chaotic,
still He leads, he guides.
How can I NOT keep seeking Christ? He has been faithful and constant my entire life, he has been my protector and my provider all along. I am alive, that is proof of God’s power displayed in my life.
And so I abide, and I dwell in Him.
He is my dwelling place, my source of strength, my redeemer, my only love.
(on a side note…I tore this tree down with my bare hands, after pruning it. totally ruins the analogy, but whatever, i felt quite good about it at the time, impressed myself!)
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