Are you being pruned?

A year ago, our neighbours asked us to strip the green foliage on our side of the boundary so they could replace their fence. An ugly bare paling replaced the once lush areas that had made my heart dance. What a loss it was and how I grieved! I stopped going outdoors for my Quiet Time because I couldn't bear to view the stark fence. A few months later, God led me out to our garden one day, telling me it was time to return. I was thrilled to find that the pruned-down stumps had begun to bear leaves. Their branches reached horizontally across, as if trying to shield the fence and cover its nakedness. Like a fire lit on a dark cold night, shimmers of hope began to warm my heart.

This year, when spring pushed it's pretty nose out of winter's sleepy slumbers, I went out to sit in my backyard each morning, communing with my Father and delighting in our springtime world. Colour-splashed flowers swayed in cool breezes as the sun shone on them in approval. Little green leaves had begun to sprout on the barren branches that sat in front of the same backyard fence.

My husband had pruned the plants close to the ground, but he'd left one of them standing upright. We were surprised to find that the tall plant now had only a few leaves on it, while those which had been stripped completely had brought forth profuse, abundant growth. They reached out in sideways swoops to touch one another. Like a plush carpet covering a once bare floor, in just a few days, the branches and leaves covered the bare patches of the fence with a flamboyant, lush green.

Our world too has been pruned in 2020. Like a dog after a swim who shakes his coat vigorously, sending a million droplets of water in his wake, the unnecessary baggage has been shaken off our lives this year, leaving us bruised, barren and bewildered.

But now ... my plants declare a truth that we will do well to heed:

Out of our pruning will come a greater fruitfulness!

Years ago, during a season of grief and pruning, I'd found deep comfort when God spoke into my weary heart through a verse in John 15. He filled my parched spirit with His words of life.

I was not being pruned because God was angry with me.

I was being pruned because He loved me.

What a precious revelation! It blessed me and freed me.

This year has been a time of pruning for many. Old ways of doing things could not continue. Relationships were put to the test. Freedoms have been taken away. For me personally, it was a comparatively easy transition. I've dealt with a chronic illness for many years, so I had been forced to declutter my life from activity for years now, so this was nothing new. But ... God's asked me to walk through doors I never expected to go through. He's closed the gate on what I have enjoyed for years so He could open fresh trails that lead to green pastures. And so ... like a little girl running to open her gifts on Christmas day, I skip towards Him, with joyful anticipation at what the future might hold.

I know Who holds the future and I know He holds my hand.

Is God pruning you today? If so, I grieve with you. Be assured that our faithful God knows what He is about. His ways are always good, even when we don't understand them. And as you look to Him, He will cause springs to overflow in your arid places, filling them with hope and life and joy and peace.

"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." John 15:1-2

"Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the desert." Isaiah 43:18-19