Yesterday I pruned a huge tomato plant that I had inherited when I bought this house. It had dead vines interwoven with the good vines, some rotting tomatoes, it took me over an hour to prune it. I wish I had taken a before picture, but I didn’t know I’d be writing about it. As I removed the dead branches meticulously off the plant Holy Spirit showed me that this is what the Father does to each of us who have asked Him to create a clean heart. Those of us who have accepted His gift of salvation, made the choice to make Him Lord over our lives. I made a decision like that 36 years ago, I was only 21. That means I had 21 years of living according to the world’s standards, the word’s rules. In the 36 years of being saved Holy Spirit, Who is my Teacher, has had to prune the mess that is me carefully, lovingly, meticulously so that I could become the beautiful living person that God had in mind when He created me in my mother’s womb. (I’m still a work in progress). As I pruned the tomato plant that had grown wildly in the absence of the couple who had previously owned the house, I was gentle but determined to allow the living parts of the plant to no longer be choked out by the hanging dead limbs. Now, I am not a vegetable Gardner, I’ve only planted flowers, roses, plants so I had no idea what I was doing- but unlike me, the Father does. I thought about the times that Holy Spirit has “pruned me” there have been painful times when I have felt the cutting off of things with in me that have needed removal – things I have had to let go off in order to move forward in Christ. As I slowly cut away dead limbs off the plant, I hoped I wasn’t hurting it but knew the necessity of loving it in a higher form than what it could know. I think that is what God does with us (if we let Him and don’t hold fast to those dead parts or rotting parts of us that cause bitterness, unforgiveness, anger that we don’t let go of) all the things that go against the fruit of the Spirit spoken about in the Bible and keep us from blossoming in Christ.
My takeaway lesson when I stared at the final results of my pruning? That we have to trust God even when we can’t see the end results. He KNOWS what He’s doing. Even when it hurts. Allowing Him to be Lord OVER our lives means we’ve given Him full authority to do whatever needs doing so that we can become fruitful FOR HIM. FOR HIS KINGDOM. The truth is, we won’t see how fully we have allowed Him to bloom us until this life is over and instead of seeing in part – we will see in full. I don’t want to miss ANYTHING God wants to do in my life, even when it has caused pain, do you? If so, TRUST HIM, let the Creator be the Gardner of your soul, I promise you the end results will be spectacular- He knows what He’s doing, He’s transforming you into something so beautiful in Him.
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