This morning I trimmed a huge line of shrubs (don't know what they're called...my brain is fried right now) that are to the right of our garage, beside the sidewalk that is between our house and the detached garage on Claiborne Court. Much to my lack of knowledge, they had been growing, unattended, for almost two years. As I usually hear His voice wherever I am, but particularly when my hands are literally touching His creation, these are the lessons trimming the shrub taught me this morning.
When our lives require a lot of work...God's work...He has to deal with us slowly.
I knew when I looked at the shrub that there was going to be a lot of pruning.
I knew what the finished product was going to look like, but I also knew that that meant a lot of layers were going to have to come off before I could get there.
With almost two years of "shrubs gone wild" I could not just cut off the top eight to ten inches of growth that I knew, ultimately, would have to come off. I had to cut it off in layers which is similar to what I have to do when I am peeling an onion or peeling an orange. One layer has to come off before the next one can come off, and so on.
In Hebrews 5:11 and 6:1 the writer says, "We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn... Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Jesus and go on to maturity"... It is this going on to maturity that God wants of us, but it's because he knows where we are, as well as where He wants us to be, that causes Him to work with us slowly. Only He knows the rate of the growth we can handle. So He works with us slowly to get us to where He wants us to be.
Pruning is so painful but so necessary. John 15:1-2 "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." Two weeks ago, I trimmed all the bushes, etc. that were in the front of the house. Today, they had such new growth I could not believe it. What not long ago had been very ugly, was beautiful today because of pruning that had been done just two weeks ago.
Before there is fruit, things have to get ugly. In order to take the amount of old growth off that I wanted, I had to, in places, get down into the bare branch. Galatians 5:24 says that "those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires." And that means that we're going to suffer pain and the ugliness of pruning. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control--fruit that come from having
crucified the sinful nature. And crucifixion is ugly.
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