Faith That Grows in Every SeasonНамуна

GOD’S PRUNING:

Every summer, I plant petunias in the flower boxes of my front windows. When I first plant these blooms, they look puny and sparse. But within a few weeks, the vines grow long and thick, cascading down from the window boxes like a waterfall.

One year, several weeks after the flowers were planted, I stood outside our house admiring our beautiful flowers. I couldn’t believe they were the same sparse saplings that had been planted only weeks before. Seeing how much our plants had grown gave me a sense of pride.

The very next morning, when I opened our front window blinds, I received the shock of my life. Our precious flowers were gone—eaten down into little nubs.

A wave of nausea hit me as I thought about my friend’s warning to spray deer repellent on our flowers. How could I be so careless? It was a common sight to see deer munching on people’s landscaping. I’m not sure what made me think our flowers were different from anyone else’s in the neighborhood. It was only a matter of time before the deer discovered the smorgasbord in our window boxes. What bothered me most was realizing the deer had devoured our flowers at their peak.

Or so I thought.

As days and weeks went by, I noticed something exciting. The petunias began to bud and flourish again. And to my surprise, in time, they became even more lush and beautiful than before.

That’s when I realized the deer had done us a favor. They had pruned our flowers, enabling the plants to produce even more blooms than before.

My limited perspective kept me from seeing the true potential of our plants. It wasn’t until I saw the lavish new growth that I finally recognized our plants were capable of producing so much more.

The same is true for you and me. God knows our true potential for bearing the greatest possible harvest of fruit. For this reason, we can trust God when He begins pruning certain areas of our lives.

God will sometimes prune that which is already producing good results in one area to bear even better results someplace else.

Painful as it may be to endure, we must surrender our lives to God’s pruning shears. When the process becomes a little too painful to bear, remember my petunias. Lush new growth is just around the corner.

REFLECTION:

In what ways have you experienced God’s pruning in your life?

After the pruning, what new growth did you see taking place as a result?

PRAYER:

Lord, I never want to stop growing, so have your way in me. Prune anything that is no longer good or that could spark greater growth in me after it is removed. I trust your higher ways. Amen.