A Little More On Fruit- Pruning

"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2He 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. 3You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

5"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. 8This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples." John 15:1-7

So after reading the other day's verses on fruit, imagine my surprise to open up my Bible and be drawn to a little more on bearing fruit! I talked a bit about bearing good fruit versus bad fruit, but I think it's important to look a little deeper at our "structure" here. While we can do what we can to try and bring out the good fruit, we also need to remember that Our Father is our master gardener. A garden, when left untended, will often times still yield fruit, but it will perform so much better when the gardener gives it some attention. The gardener will remove weeds, which can choke out roots and steal nourishment. The gardener will add supports to weak vines if needed, and the gardener will do a much needed, and very necessary pruning.

Let me tell you about pruning. This summer I started my own tomato plants from seed for my garden. I was so excited to try growing these unique varieties of tomatoes, and I reveled daily in my beautiful plants. When the time came to put them in the ground, I did so very lovingly and carefully, and I daresay I spent much of the summer simply watching these plants. I added support where needed, fertilized a touch, and pulled intrusive weeds. But I forgot one very important detail- the pruning. A tomato plant is actually a vine. Off of the main vine, the branches grow off to the sides, and these branches will eventually bear the actual fruit. As the plants remain healthy, new shoots begin forming and growing. Sometimes these new shoots (commonly referred to as suckers in the tomato world) bear fruit, but most often, these suckers are just useless branches. I read all kinds of literature and websites that told me to prune these suckers, because these gorgeous and healthy branches would simply steal vital nutrients from the rest of the plant. But in my head, all I could think of was that more branches meant more possibilities for the plant to bear fruit! I wanted as much fruit as possible, so I'll tell you, I didn't prune a single sucker.

The result in my garden was that my favorite tomato plant only yielded eight gorgeous tomatoes- yet the plant itself was vibrant and healthy. My cherry tomato plant was the most gorgeous- loaded with branches and blossoms, but the plant was so prolific that all it's energy was going to forming new branches and flowers, that I didn't get a single cherry tomato. Had I pruned, had I removed the suckers which suck life from the rest of the plant, I would have had a beautiful harvest of cherry tomatoes.

It is the exact same way with God. I can be like that cherry tomato plant, full of energy and putting out branch after branch, being involved in so many activities that my plant is full to bursting. But because I am so involved and so spread out, I'm not really giving my all to any one project, and I am also not putting out the fruit that God wants me to bear in that atmosphere. So sometimes in life, God, our master gardener comes through and gives us some attention. He may add that bit of support, strengthening our soul a bit, but then he comes through with the pruning shears and snips off a branch, or two, or three. And before we know it, we have little resemblance to what we once were, and it's almost like we're starting over. Except that we're not. All that extra, all those excesses have been trimmed from our life and we can now focus. We can focus on setting the fruit on the remaining branches that are left.

Sometimes it's exactly like that. We may feel that situation after situation is crumbling, doors are closing to us, and we may feel discouraged, but we can take heart and look at what is really going on. God is pruning us, cutting back on what is distracting us and helping us to focus. He's preparing us for the important tasks ahead- for the fruit we are to bear and share with others. He will add the support that we need exactly when we need it, because he IS the master gardener and knows exactly what we need, when we need it. As long as we remain firmly rooted in Him, He will tend us and guide us and take care of our every need. Sometimes being pruned is uncomfortable and awkward, but if we have the determination to see it through, we will be witness to exactly what God has for us. And I'm going to hold Him to that, I want to see where this vine is going and which branches are going to bear the best fruit. God's glory will be revealed through that fruit, and I don't want to miss a second of that.