When you think of the word pruning, you think of the idea of cutting off all the dead branches or just trimming bushes that have become overgrown. Right? Well, my horticulturist brother-in-law Andrew, has educated me by explaining that sometimes we also need to prune some perfectly good branches as well, in order to train the plant in the direction it should grow. When it comes to fruit trees, pruning also forces the tree to put more energy into fewer but larger, sweeter, higher quality fruits.
I like to believe the same is true of how God prunes our lives… Whatever God has chosen to prune out of our lives, whether it be the loss of a loved one, a job, a relationship or something material, we can be assured that He is doing it for our ultimate growth in sight. We may not like it or understand it, and yes, it is often very painful, but we need to trust that even when we cannot see the big picture or see it from God's perspective, it is needed for our growth.
This Covid-19 Pandemic and lockdown has also pruned a lot of things out of our lives. Some of them like people and hugs we may be sorely missing, and other things not so much, like traffic or crowds, but the truth is that both the good and the bad has taught us what really matters in life and has surely made us more resilient.
We may look and feel like this stumped plant during our pruning seasons, but we need to encourage ourselves with the knowledge that God is either changing the direction He wants us to grow or using it to help us grow into better, stronger people, with sweeter, juicier, larger, more excellent fruits…
