Pruning

Today James basically butchered a tree in our front yard. It needed to be done badly.
It's a cherry tree that gets cherries everywhere & was next to our roof so bugs were abundant!
And it didn't help that everytime the wind blew the scraped against our window & had me convinced that there were rats or birds in our attic!!
(I get a little dramatic when I'm trying to fall asleep)
So now our poor tree looks sort of like a big stick.
James says it'll grow back better then before, while I keep hoping he didn't kill the thing!!

I think God has put me thru some mega-pruning like our cherry tree. Where he just decided to go in & hack it off.
More then likely it needed to be done, even though it looked ugly for awhile.
And made me seem really barren.

When you look up the physical definition of Pruning it defines it as:
--To cut off or remove dead or living parts or branches of (a plant, for example) to improve shape or growth.

Its that last part of the definition that makes me go, Wow.
He'll cut all the yucky stuff off to Improve growth. I'm so glad that God is a master gardener of my life. And I'm glad he can see the stuff that needs to be "cut off" even though to the eye it looks beautiful and healthy.

I know the bible talks about this and the scripture escapes me right now.....
It'll come to me in my sleep I know it!

I just have never thought of God cutting away the unhealthy to improve the growth. It seems so drastic, but its for the better.

I know that tree will grow back better next year and although that seems a long way off to be bare & ugly; its a small price to pay for its health & growth in the future.

Looking at it like that for me, makes me feel a lot better about when I get frustrated at God when He "prunes" things out of my life. In the long run it'll be better for me & I will grow.
And isn't that all he wants for us anyway?
Growth.
I want so much to continue growing. I've lived my Christian life for so long living off of milk & assuming it was enough. I didn't want to try or even step out. And who knows what I've missed out on in life because of that. But God never gave up on me so I need to continue to allow Him every part of me and keep on going.
That doesnt' mean the pruning is comfortable!
NO it hurts & sucks. No one likes to be reminded of the junk in our lives- especially by God! But God, thank you that you are the one who gently reminds us of our shortcomings.
I need to have that attitude of Mercy to bestow upon others because you bestow that upon us.

So while my cherry tree out front looks like a tree that someone mutilated I will be reminded of my life in that tree. That although I might stand there bare, exposed, a bit odd looking, its just a growth process. And in the end, I'll come out better then before. I might have looked good before, but like always God will surprise me & do it better then I had imagined!