Pruning

"...every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful."  John 15:2b

When my father returned home from World War II he did what many people around Yoakum, Texas did in those days - he farmed tomatoes.  Back then Yoakum was a major tomato growing area, thus the annual "Tom-Tom Festival."  Nothing in farming is easy and farming tomatoes can be particularly difficult.  You had to protect plants from freezes early, fight the damage of insects in the middle and avoid getting your crop to market too late at the end.  But the thing my father thought was the worst part of being a tomato farmer was pruning.

When the plants bloom, there is a certain branch under the blossoms that is pruned or cut away so that the plant produces more fruit instead of more vines.  It is not that hard to prune that branch, you can snap it off with two fingers, but pruning a field meant you had to do that stooped over, all day long as you went through hundreds of plants, row after row.  It was monotonous, back breaking, mind numbing, finger staining work.  In the end, you hoped it would be worth the pain.

Jesus used a picture of his day to teach his disciples that he "prunes" us.  Maybe this is a pruning time for you.  Some things have been cut out of life or dreams or possibilities or plans or careers.  When we come to a place in life where we ask ourselves, "What is God doing?"  Chances are we are being pruned and he is producing fruit. He always produces more fruit.  It is not pleasant at the present but the outcome is worth the price and the pain. Trust him.  He is good at this.

We will look one more time at the Fruit of the Spirit this Sunday.  It will help with the pruning times.

For the journey...