I drive daily to my job at Atascadero State Hospital. This summer has altered the landscape of the scenery on my route. The effects of the drought are nowhere more evident than along the sides of highway 41! Where dense groves of luscious avocado trees once stood, now are rows and rows of white stumps!
Why would the avocado farmers kill off their vast orchards? The white stumps eerily remind me of driving by military cemeteries and seeing the vast rows of white headstones.
Here in wine country, similarly, after harvest, you will see acres of grapevines pruned back to the stump, and smoldering heaps of clippings nearby.
We know this is necessary for the health of the plant and for future growth and productivity!
In the realm of medicine, I’ve seen doctors working to save lives of burn victims and diseases by removing bad tissue, and sometimes even entire limbs in order to try to save a life!
Though tall avocado trees are beautiful, and create a magical forest for visitors, the taller trees use more water, are more difficult to harvest, and are not reaching their full production potential. They have to reach for the sunlight- so the bottom branches aren’t able to bear as much fruit.
Our lives are somewhat like an avocado tree, don’t you think?
We can grow and expand, reaching for new heights…but every now and then we need to cut back, take a breather and think about the future.
When we begin to grow again it may be in a different direction or with a change in productivity, depending on how we are fed and nurtured through the change.
Taking care of ourselves spiritually during the pruning process is essential!
I found these instructions for pruning grape vines interesting:
1
Allow the grape vine to grow any-which-way the first year it is in the ground. Having abundant stems and leaves will help develop a strong root system on immature grape vines. No pruning at all for the first year.
2
Select the strongest and most vigorous-looking stem during the winter of the first year. Using bypass pruners, remove all the other stems at the base of the plant or as close to the trunk on the main stem as possible. Stake the remaining stem which will become the trunk of the plant. Use a grape stake or secure the vine along a fence with wire.
3
Allow stems to grow from the main trunk. In the spring of the second year, begin removing all but two of the very best side shoots that grow from the trunk. If the vine isn't branching where you want it too, pinch the top of the main trunk to encourage side branching.
4
Cut back the top of the trunk during midsummer of the second year, when the vine reaches the desired height.
The process of tip pruning will force new growth along the main trunk. Remove any new branches that don't fit your plan.
There’s more, but I suppose my point is pretty obvious- sometimes God has to add to our lives by subtracting! To be the most fruitful, productive person that I was created to be, God has to do some work on me!
John 15:1-11 The Voice
15 Jesus: I am the true vine, and My Father is the keeper of the vineyard. 2 My Father examines every branch in Me and cuts away those who do not bear fruit. He leaves those bearing fruit and carefully prunes them so that they will bear more fruit; 3 already you are clean because you have heard My voice. 4 Abide in Me, and I will abide in you. A branch cannot bear fruit if it is disconnected from the vine, and neither will you if you are not connected to Me.
It is comforting to think of trouble, in whatever form it may come to, us, as a heavenly messenger, bringing us something from God. In its earthly aspect it may seem hurtful, even destructive; but in its spiritual out-working it yields blessing.
Many of the richest blessings which have come down to us from the past are the fruit of sorrow or pain.
We should never forget that redemption, Jesus redemptive work on the cross, the world's greatest blessing, is the fruit of the world's greatest sorrow.
In every time of sharp pruning, when the knife is deep and the pain is sore, it is an unspeakable comfort to read, "My Father is my Vinedresser."
I was told of a beautiful vineyard where luscious clusters of grapes were hanging on every side. The owner had endured some years of poor quality and lower production. He had to make a change so he hired a new chief keeper. He said, "When my new gardener came, he said he would have nothing to do with these vines unless he could cut them clean down to the stalk; and he did, and we had no grapes for two years, but this is the result."
There is rich imagery in this interpretation of the pruning process, as we apply it to the Christian life.
Pruning seems to be destroying the vine, the gardener appears to be cutting it all away; but he looks on into the future and knows that the final outcome will be the enrichment of its life and greater abundance of fruit.
There are blessings we can never have unless we are ready to pay the price of pain.
There is no way to reach them save through suffering.
As Jesus said, the secret to a fruitful, productive life is to ‘abide’ in him:
5 I am the vine, and you are the branches. If you abide in Me and I in you, you will bear great fruit. Without Me, you will accomplish nothing.
6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is like a branch that is tossed out and shrivels up and is later gathered to be tossed into the fire to burn.
7 If you abide in Me and My voice abides in you, anything you ask will come to pass for you.
8 Your abundant growth and your faithfulness as My followers will bring glory to the Father.
To abide here means to remain or to wait.
The background to John 15 is Jesus preparing his followers for his departure.
At a time when all of His disciples are feeling as if they are about to be uprooted, Jesus sketches a picture of this new life as a flourishing vineyard—a network of vines and strong branches steeped in rich soil, abundant grapes hanging from their vines ripening in the sun.
Jesus paints a new garden of Eden in their imaginations—one that is bustling with fruit, sustenance, and satisfaction.
This is the Kingdom life. It is all about connection, sustenance, and beauty and the Father's care and provision!
But within this promise of life is the warning that people must be in Christ or they will not experience these blessings.
Remaining in Him, Waiting on and for Him, trusting in him! In going through the pruning process, Jesus makes this challenge:
John 14:1 NLT
We must trust that the Master Gardener,
the Vinedresser, will do exactly as he needs to for our ultimate good. How can we possibly endure the many painful things that life brings us?
Finishing this passage, It's all about the LOVE:
Jesus: 9 I have loved you as the Father has loved Me. Abide in My love. 10 Follow My example in obeying the Father’s commandments and receiving His love. If you obey My commandments, you will stay in My love. 11 I want you to know the delight I experience, to find ultimate satisfaction, which is why I am telling you all of this.
We’ll be looking in more depth at how the believer is to ‘remain’ in Jesus, to ‘wait’ in Him, and to follow His example.
