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Minutes of Meetings with God |
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Pruning ... |
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| I started to prune our fruit trees during a brief flash of Spring. I
had gone out to examine the trees several times. They were covered with
"suckers", that new growth of little branches that seems to draw the life
away from the fruit. I knew that if we are to have any decent sized fruit
this year, I would have to get rid of those "life suckers".
Pruning fruit trees is one of my least favorite things to do. I am aware that I know next to nothing about trees; and I have no confidence in my ability to decide which limbs should stay and which should bt cut off. Most annoying is, I get a sore neck from looking up while I take forever to decide which limb to cut off next. I rummaged around the barn until I found my "limb lopper." It's one of those deals that has an eight foot pole with a hook and blade on the end. The blade is worked by yanking on a rope that goes through a couple of pulleys. It sounds complicated and it is, to somebody like me, but it works most of the time. Anyway, the "limb lopper" lets me keep both feet on the ground so I am less likely to get hurt falling out of trees or toppling off of ladders that suddenly start sinking into hidden mole runs. Accompanied by our trusty (but totally distracted) dog, Samantha, I set about putting our tiny orchard into total disarray. I lopped limbs until I could lop no more. At one point, I had to get my wife's chain saw (it's a very dainty "lady's" model with a short bar) to cut some serious dead wood. I actually almost finished two of the smallest of the trees. Did I mention that pruning fruit trees is one of my least favorite things to do? After I stopped the dog from dragging limbs everywhere but where I wanted them, I quit for the day and put away my tools. The trees I had worked on looked pretty sad. I had butchered them real good. I had cut off every limb growing "up" or growing into another limb. I cut off every limb that couldn't be sprayed or that would block sun light from other limbs. And I cut off every limb that would hit me in the head when I mowed under the tree with the lawn tractor. That means I had cut off most of the small limbs on the trees. A friend of mine assured me that the trees need serious pruning. He told me that the pruning "shocks" the tree, sends it some important messages. One of the messages is: "Hey, you're spending too much energy on yourself in unimportant and frivolous growth, stop making yourself bigger." The second message is: "Put more energy into getting the next generation of trees going (make more and better fruit rather than more limbs)." My friend seems to think that pruning somehow "scares" the tree and makes the tree realize it won't live forever; it forces the tree to get its priorities straight. I could not help but wonder whether or not a tree felt that getting pruned was such a great experience. I can't remember when, but sometime during all this lopping and pruning and chain sawing and stuff, one of Jesus' descriptions of God came to mind. In John's Gospel, Jesus says that He is the [grape] vine and we are the branches of that vine; Jesus says that the Father is the "vinedresser", the one who prunes the branches so they will bear more fruit. Jesus points out that if branches don't bear fruit, then they get lopped off. If they do bear fruit, then they get pruned so that they will bear even more fruit. I began to think about difficult times in my life, and I started to think about friends and people I care about who are going through much trouble, loss and sadness. I asked myself, could this stuff that we've gone through and are still going through, could this stuff somehow be pruning for us? Is this a message to us to get our priorities straight, a reminder that we won't live in this world forever? Is this "pruning" a call to put more energy into bearing more and better fruit? I started to get angry with the "Vinedresser" for lopping off so much and pruning so heavily and using the divine equivalent of a chain saw on people. Then I remembered that pruning fruit trees is one my least favorite things to do (did I mention that before?). I remembered my aching neck, my painful muscles, the sticky and stinging sweat running into eyes, drawing blood with scrapes and splinters. I began to wonder how God feels about being "The Vinedresser". Then I remembered Calvary and the Cross. I realized that pruning is probably one of God's least favorite things too. |