Oh geez, it's been 4 months. How time flies when you're...planning a wedding. Yes, Benson and I are married! You'd think I'd write an entry about that, since it was such an
incredible day, but my thoughts on the day aren't fully formulated yet. Maybe next week...but I say that all the time, don't I? :)
A couple of weeks ago I was at a staff meeting where we went through
John 15, the vine and the branches. What usually sticks out to me from this passage is the plethora of "remain in me" phrases, or how Jesus is the vine and we are branches, etc. When we read through it this time, though, a subtle part of the text jumped out at me that I don't think I'd really noticed before: "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."
I had to listen carefully to it a second time and reread it because I thought I heard it wrong. Even branches that bear fruit get pruned? I guess I only really focused on how the branches that DON'T bear fruit get cut off. I tend to think that if something is getting pruned it's because it's dying and doing poorly. I usually think of pruning as something that is painful and undesired because really, who likes getting things taken away? It seems like punishment. You don't bear fruit, so something's gotta get pruned so that you can bear fruit.
But here in verse 2 I'm told that every branch that DOES bear fruit gets pruned as well. It's striking to me that the Lord prunes things that are doing well--making them go through a temporarily painful process of being pruned--so that they can do even better in the future.
My friend mentioned that if a branch has a ton of fruit on it but it isn't mature enough to hold it all, it has to be pruned so that it can grow back thicker and stronger and therefore better able to hold the fruit as well. It makes sense.
It encourages me to see that maybe when something is pruned from my life it's not because I'm being punished, per say (though it may sometimes be the case!)...rather, it could possibly be a promise from the Lord that there is even more to come. So instead of mourning the loss and figuring out how to "fix" whatever is wrong, maybe I should be looking in hopeful anticipation toward the promise the Lord is giving to me and be mindful of how He is trying to prepare me for even more fruit to come.
Comments (1)
good word. i'm feelin the pruning out here