I have been working in the yard most of the day and I am worn out. I know that I am going to be sore tomorrow. I can already feel it. My wonderful neighbor who I talk about often said I could come and get some of her plants. She has a beautiful yard and many plants and flowers. We were going to divide the plants and bring some of her plants over to my yard. Now y'all, I must tell you, neither of us has ever done this before. I show up with my landscape book and I am ready to go. I read the book before I went over there and it said that all you do is dig up the plant and cut it in half with a shovel. I have to tell you that I was a bit nervous. I was sure that we were going to kill all of her wonderful plants by taking a shovel to them. So far, we didn't kill them and we transplanted them to my yard. I will keep you updated if they all live or not.
However, I have been thinking since then that many times I feel like that. That God has taken a shovel and just split me in half. Have you ever felt this way? The Bible calls it pruning, which I know is a bit different that dividing plants, but work with me here. :) Why does He do this, that we might bear more fruit. Now, I have new plants because my friend was willing to let me take a shovel to her plants. I can look back over my life and see that every time I felt that a shovel was going to split me into a million pieces, He was faithful and shoveled out of my life what needed taken out. There was and still is lots that needs removing.
The result of the dividing is the addition of a new plant. It is often in our times of struggle that others look on and want to know our God. In this time, we can rejoice that through our struggles and hurts, others can look on and come to know our God.
Happy Shoveling!
2 comments:
I hope your plants survived. It's so true, after a season of pruning there is a season of growing, usually leaps and bounds. This is SO encouraging to me to remember this.
Oh, you know I thought about something else I wanted to say. I was thinking about your concern for the plants living through that process. My experience has been like I said in my last comment, either abundant rapid healthy growth comes from that process, or the plant does wither under the stress, and can't seem to recover, and does eventually die (usually the latter happens when I'm the one caring for the plant). This is like us also, we are all the branches, He is the vine. Every branch that abides in Him WILL be pruned, and will bear good fruit. Those that don't abide will be cut off and cast from Him. (Just like the plants I kill).
Good analogy Kacey. Food for thought.
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