prune(ing)s. not just for geriatrics.

“I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener.  He
cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes
the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more.”

~ John 15:1-2 ~

                 

 

Last week Dan and I had the opportunity to do a little grape vine pruning. I have never done this before, nor has Dan, but we figured how hard can it be… a snip here and a snip there and you got a nice little bundle of grapes all ready for eating. 

 

As it turned out, it wasn’t too terribly difficult, but while doing it the passage in John about God being the gardener and us being the vine came alive to me. I was pruning away, and as I cut that story kept popping into my mind. I was cutting off large ends of the vine, which looked strong and healthy, but were bearing no fruit. Some of the vines I cut seemed to be the thickest vines on the plant, and some of them were holding up a lot of the weight of the grapes, but they still had to go. What I learned is that if the vine isn’t producing fruit, it is sucking up nutrients and other good stuff that the grapes need. The pruning was definitely a “painful” process for the vine, part of it being cut off, but in the end it will help produce better fruit in the vines that actually have grapes on them.

 

“For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me. Yes,
I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in
them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. Anyone
who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and
withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned.“

~ John 15: 4b-6 ~

 

 

love. obedience.