Between Fruit and More Fruit is a Knife

 

When we moved into this house just over a year ago, the outside needed a lot of attention.
And to be honest, home exterior is my weakness.
Give me the inside and I’m good.
Let me organize the furniture, hang the wall art, arrange the seasonal decor and I’ve got it.
But plant the flowers, pull the weeds, trim the shrubs… that has always proved most challenging to me.

But this year I decided early on that I was going to do it.
I… was going to be a lover of the outdoors.
I… was going to plant flowers.  Oh - and take care of them!
I… was going to focus some time and energy on sprucing up our yard.
I just didn’t know all the work it would actually take.

And truth be told, it’s not where we’d like it be…. but we’re getting close.
We’ve planted the flowers.  And I’ve managed NOT to kill one.  Well… not completely.
We’ve pulled the weeds.  MANY MANY MANY a weed has succumb to my determined hands!
We’ve laid the mulch.  No one told us how often you have to “add” to mulch beds.  Like… seriously… where DOES it disappear to?
We’ve defined the beds around the trees.  This may or may not have been reason for Trevor Bender to have purchased another tool for his repertoire.  It IS a pretty amazing tool though, I must say.
We’ve pulled up pavers that had been grass-covered for years.  One night we spent nearly 3 hours pulling up embedded stones from the original ground covering.  Literally, HUNDREDS of stones were uprooted and transplanted to our rock garden.
We’ve added pavers.  This job took way longer than vision of it gives credit!

And possibly what I am most proud of is a couple plants I managed to “save” from the brink of death.  Like… full on resurrection, folks.  
Oh the things I never imagined were possible!

Earlier this summer I spent a great deal of time on what appeared to be a “giant weed.”
Despite my sweet hubby’s repeated comments to “let the poor thing die”, my thought insisted - “see what this thing CAN be first!”

Then I would decide what needed to be done.

I started with pruning it.
And pruning it.
And pruning it.
I’d come out every day and attempt to “nurse it back to health.”
And every day it simply looked like, “just another casualty” in the long line of horticulture misfortunes that have become a part of my agricultural resume.

But then… one day not long ago… I saw it!
There… in the middle of the green leaves were PINK FLOWERS.
And this picture doesn’t do it justice.
It’s the largest of the plants we have growing along the backside of our home.

There… amidst what once was lifeless and on the threshold of extermination… is the hope of something beautiful.

And it’s in the gardens I am reminded of His life and His words the most.

“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 15:2.

I had heard a pastor say it some time ago and found it just this morning in a journal.  I opened right to it and it was like the Lord was reminding me.  “He prunes to produce more fruit.  And in between ‘fruit’ and ‘more fruit’ is a knife.”

There have been hard days where what was evident in my own life was not pretty.
Times when God, in His kindness, had to wield the knife to prune back all that does not belong.
And though painful, it wasn’t without purpose and divine production.
Pruning always results in augmentation.  It’s victory is always increase.
And we, who brave the operation, always are the benefactors of His lacerations.
He cuts and we improve by the removal of weeds that no longer have a place in our temple.

Oh He wants to produce much in your life and through your life.
And He doesn’t always do it through blessing… sometimes He has to do it through blade.

Will we let Him make the necessary cuts?
The finished product will be so… so worth it!

Trust me.
No… trust Him!