Ouch!

All that lovely green.  Gone.

Every fall for many years my husband cut back our six-foot Arctic willows to within two feet of the ground.  The first time he did it, the neighbours went nuts - one asked him just what he thought he was doing.

"Pruning," he said.  They thought he'd killed the poor things.  "Just wait," he replied calmly.

The next spring, the seemingly dead stumps produced new branches that grew so quickly that he had to cut them back half-way through the summer to shape the hedge that grew around the front of our property.  Every year he had the same conversation with the neighbours until they finally gave up and let him alone.  And every year the willows had to be cut back in July because they were growing so fast.

I'm sure that pruning hurts the bushes.  The shears cut through live flesh and off to the ground fall the branches that - aside from the odd leaf or blossom, are essentially barren and hindering the overall growth of the bushes.  But in the hands of a skillful gardener, it will thrive in the end, and it will produce even more lush foliage.


Just so with the Heavenly Gardener.  He trims off those things we have tried to do on our own only to end up with only a couple of pitiful leaves, maybe a bloom or two. Seemingly with no thought He reaches into the place where we started to do it on our own, and He cuts that self-seeking part of us off.  It hurts.  Our flesh cries out in pain.  

But it is a wise cutting the Master does, never more than is necessary. He forces us to dig our roots deep in the soil of His love and focus on what's important - drawing strength and encouragement from the Sun of His acceptance, and nourishment and renewal from the pure Water of His Spirit.  

Then, once the winter of our circumstance is over, we will be surprised at the growth and the beauty where once our lives were stunted and pitiful.  And we will eventually be able to offer our beauty back to Him, and our shade to others.