Do you ever think of God as a gardener? I know that God planted the first garden and that illustrations about fields and farming are plentiful within the scriptures, but do you ever think about God actively gardening. In my mind I see an older man, weathered by the sun, moving amongst the rows of vegetables in his garden. Perhaps he wears a large hat to keep himself cool in his Liberty overalls. I see him inspecting and working within the field that he takes such pride in. I see him watering a plant here and weeding around a plant there. Then I see him take out a pair of gardening scissors and move towards his grape vine.
Now I know that God is Spirit and that he doesn't have a physical body. I also know that God is great and mighty. He is infinite in all of his attributes and we cannot even begin to comprehend him apart from what he has revealed to us about himself. Yet on the night before his crucifixion, this is the image of God that Jesus offered to his disciples. This is the image of God that has been floating across my mind and into my studies more and more over the past few weeks.
John 15:1-8 recounts Jesus sharing with his disciples that he is the vine and that his disciples are the branches. We discover that through Jesus we have the source of life and the source of fruitfulness. If we will remain in him then we shall produce much fruit. However, in these verses God has a special place. He is the tender of the vine. Jesus is the source of life, but God the Father serves as the gardener of the branches of that vine. He moves along the vine seeking those branches that must be pruned. Branches that fail to produce are cut away from the vine so that they will not waste the precious nutrients of life that come from the vine for the producing of fruit. Branches that are producing fruit are cut back so that they can produce greater fruit in the future seasons.
Often we place our focus on the former branches. Those branches that are cut away and cast into the fire, but lately I have been thinking about those fruitful branches which are being pruned for greater fruitfulness. For the fruitful, pruning comes to bring us to a place of greater fruitfulness. This pruning is not a time of joy and happiness. Pruning requires a part of ourselves to be cut off so that we may be even more productive in the future. This pruning removes things that are a part of who we are and what we have done so that the future fruit will be greater than the former. This pruning requires loss. The great things of the kingdom do not come without great cost.
Many of you are facing the scissors of God right now. You have sought the Lord and you see the fruit that you have produced. Now you are feeling the pain of loss, hurt, confusion, and frustration. I want to encourage you right now, that God is preparing you for greater fruitfulness. While this season may be painful and it may create loss within your life, God is working to bring about his good purposes in you for greater fruit in the seasons to come. Philippians 1:6 tells us that "he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." Hold tight to that promise and remember that the great gardener knows just what he is doing in you so that he is able to accomplish his great will through you.
God bless
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