Holy Gardening

House plants. Dead. Air Plants. Dead. A "green thumb" I do not possess. Try as I might and with all good intentions, but for the most part plants come to my house to die. This is why I have succumbed to buying plastic plants. They need very little, if any, care. Maybe a swipe of a dusting cloth here and there. But the problem with cute little plastic plants is that they do not produce anything beneficial. Aestetically pleasing at best. But NO "fruit".

Well my mom is an avid gardener and every year she has a massive garden that produces a HUGE haul of delicousness. I've always wanted a garden like hers but I knew I should start small. (Since I'm a plant morgue and all.) So this year I thought I'd try my hand at bucket gardening.

Hoping for a table full of red juicy tomatoes and crisp sweet peppers, I crossed my fingers and set about getting my supplies. I successfully planted all 5 plants. Garden Queen status here I come! Thinking that all should go swimmingly since the plants would be outside getting naturally watered and plenty of sunshine, things would be easy peasy.

Wrong.

The Process of Pruning

After what seemed like years my plants were finally tall, bushy, and full. Score 1 for the plant reaper! But upon closer examination I noticed there were not any flowers, buds, or blossoms. NO fruit whatsoever. Gardening For Dummies would have been a great read before starting my garden crusade. Well instead of dumping the buckets and giving up I took to the internet to hopefully find a solution. And that's when I learned about pruning vegetable plants.

Pruning is necessary. By removing wild branches and new suckers you redirect the plants energy into producing quality fruit instead of a tangled mess of leaves and branches. If you don't clear out the overgrowth it will choke out the possibility of the plant ever producing any kind of valuable harvest. As I read this it dawned on me, vegetable pruning bears a close resemblance to the "pruning" I receive from my heavenly gardener.

John 15: 1-2 I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit.

The Fathers "pruning" is always timely and done with care. He doesn't half hazardly snip away

bits and pieces of our lives. It's intentional. He's taking away what is no longer effective for our spiritual growth to make room for NEW, for BETTER, for HIM.

Many times in life we get out of balance. Different worldly pleasures tend to take precedent over our spiritual health. We get tangled up with different people and activities that snuff out our ability to hear God's voice. If we cannot hear His voice then there is no way we can abide in the vine. Our branches will wither and die.

Pruning usually exposes sin. This process is uncomfortable, painful even, especially when you come face to face with the sin you've held on to for so long. The sin you have ignored or have become comfortable with. Dependent on. Or even razzle dazzled to make it more acceptable. We cannot grow if we do not identify the sins holding us down. These sins may not be actions, they may be our attitudes or thoughts. If these sins are not dealt with our spiritual fruit will die on the vine.

Colossians 1:9 That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;

We should long for pruning

My tomato plants longed for pruning. As soon as I cut and thinnned outthe wayward branches my plants took off! Dozens of ruby red tomatoes staring back at me. It won't be too long and these babies will be topping my salads or jarred for winter chilli. Just like the plants we need to remove the clutter, remove the vine suckers that are taking your time energy away from your fruitful harvest.

But you canot get angry when He removes you from toxic situations or toxic people from your life. Don't get upset when He wants YOU to change something within YOUR character. Don't yell out why me, why now. Find joy in the process because in this process we KNOW He loves us and wants us to live out the preordained life He has for us. But we can't do that if we are holding onto the things that are keeping up stuck. Hold on and trust in Him during this season because our Holy Gardener knows what He's doing and He is the ONLY one that sees the bigger picture.

We are to be firmly rooted in Christ, well watered by the scripture, worship, and prayer, and pruned regularly by our Father.

John 15:8 Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.

Just keep growing.