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“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 

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.”

~John 15:1-2

 

Happy day dear sister!

I am feeling great today; loving Jesus and moving forward! It feels good to sit down with you, perhaps because I’ve just come in from attempting to bring a corner of my yard into submission!

As you might remember from previous letters, I have written about my lackluster gardening attempts. In one regard that is not entirely true…. I am very good at growing weeds! Even my flower boxes with fake flowers manage to produce real weeds! I do, however, have a couple of intentional plants that grow in spite of my neglect.

About 20 years ago a friend of ours gave us a couple of sticks and said if we prepared the soil, put them in the right light, fertilized and kept them free of weeds we would get blackberries! We were excited and promptly stuck them in the ground, but then sort of forgot about them. (Hey, we had 5 kids running around!) Many seasons came and went with the blackberries unnoticed and uncared for. (Unnoticed except by the birds, that is.)

About 19 years have flown by since, but this summer I have been getting reacquainted with the blackberries and we have enjoyed a decent crop in spite of all our neglect. (Thank you Lord!) The birds still got a share, but that’s okay. (It might be more accurate to say, after all these years, that the birds were sharing with us!)

Now, I don’t know much about blackberries, I wonder if the plants are supposed to be vine-like or bushy? I would think bushy, since most growing that takes place in the Bible seems to involve pruning. Some of our blackberry branches are so long that they’ve actually bent to the ground and have rooted there. We don’t get fruit from those and tend to trip over those rooted vines a lot.

That got me thinking about the Biblical concepts of pruning and rooting. If I had been faithful to prune the blackberries, they wouldn’t have gotten so wild and would have grown in a way that was healthier for them. Many of the large branches, though they are still part of the vine, bear no fruit at all.

The passage in John says that the Lord cuts off those branches that bear no fruit! He prunes, or shapes, those that do so they produce even more fruit! Thinking about God pruning me seems like it might hurt, but the plants don’t seem to mind. They get even stronger and produce more! There must be a spiritual truth in that!

Growing roots seems more passive than the violence of pruning, but we must keep the right goals in mind. Col. 2:6-7 says “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.” We need to have roots in the proper “soil”. We can cultivate roots in Christ, growing with a deep, secure, unwavering faith and trust in Him or we can allow our roots to grow in neglected soil that may result in stumbling blocks or even strongholds in our lives.

We started our blackberries with the potential for good, healthy plants. They grew, even without our care, but grew wild in a way that limited their potential to be fruitful. Then, some of the plant became rooted in a place of stumbling and had to be cut out. Other branches grew so long and thick they not only sapped the fruit bearing energy of the plant, but also tangled in nearby bushes, hindering the ability of their neighboring plants to grow properly.

Hmmmm……what aspects of our lives are in need of some careful pruning? What issues or habits are strong, but bear little or good fruit? How do they sap our strength so that we don’t have the time or energy to cultivate good fruit?

How deep do our roots go and into what kind of soil? Strong spiritual roots planted in healthy soil produce spiritual maturity and fruit pleasing to God! Roots of flesh can still bring about good fruit, but it is not eternal fruit, with a soon coming expiration date.

Thank God that He is the Master gardener! Thank God that if we yield to His faithful hand, He will care for us with exactly the pruning, watering, feeding we need to have healthy spiritual roots in His deep, abiding love for you and me. That is why I am so happy (and sweaty) today!

May the Lord bless us with His gardening wisdom as we ponder our own roots and where we might have need of trimming! May He give us grace to yield to His plan and the place we have in His garden!

With love, your sister, Celeste