The hands of the Gardner

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 (NIV)

 The John 15 passage about the vine and the branches is iconic. It speaks to the need to remain or abide in Christ. The imagery is rich, as Jesus compares His followers to branches that MUST stay attached to Himself, the vine, in order to stay alive, be nourished, and experience spiritual intimacy. But this amazing analogy starts off with another character: the Gardner.

 The Gardner maintains the health of the overall enterprise – the Vine and its branches. We could extend the analogy to think about watering and fertilizing, but we’ll stick with the points Jesus made, which include the Gardner’s direct interaction with the branches. The goal is maximum fruit, which we might think of in terms of the fruit of the Spirit, or offshoot branches, or contributions to the promotion of healthy growth.

 Since we are the branches, we have a little more say-so over our outcome than a literal branch of a literal vine would possess. But the tool Jesus describes in the hand of the Gardner is a set of snips. These are used to eliminate the dead branches – those incapable or unwilling to bear fruit. They are also used to trim and clean the healthy branches – those that are yielding a crop, but are capable of more.

Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all.  –Hebrews 12:7-8 (NIV)

As a branch, my objective is not big, beautiful, healthy leaves, but fruit. If the leaves are keeping me from maximizing my fruit, then they have to go. How do you feel about being pruned? I have found it to be arduous and often painful. Moreover, it can run counter to what I wanted to do and what I thought I was supposed to be doing.

In the last year, God has shown me a lot about giving up efforts to control situations that were no longer my responsibility. Painful. I began to prayerfully place those situations on the altar, being led by the Spirit into a place where I thought my heart was yielded and trusting Him with the outcomes. But I soon found myself impatient because I wasn’t seeing the movement in those situations that I was convinced needed to occur. Frustrating.

Am I being pruned? My illusion of control has been reluctantly abandoned, followed by my expectation of what God’s timing should look like (which, if I’m honest, was probably an attempt to exert control by proxy). It hurts. But it’s necessary if I am to bear much fruit. God is sovereign. Will I trust Him? Perhaps you’ve found yourself in a season of pruning as well. Let the Gardner do His work. It won’t be fun and it won’t be comfortable, but it will result in more fruit. To your blessing and His glory.

Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but whoever hates correction is stupid.  –Proverbs 12:1 (NIV)