Gardening, especially the pruning aspect, helps me make sense of life.

One of the things I love most about late fall and winter is the opportunity to prune my various trees/plants (apples, maples, blackberries, raspberries, etc...) so that next year they can be even more fruitful and even more beautiful. The importance of pruning, sometimes heavily, has regularly brought me to reflect on John 15:2. I'm struck by how helpful this imagery is.

“…every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.”

If you are in Christ, and you feel hacked to pieces, dried out and done, cut off and discarded, just you wait… God, the master gardener, has greater fruitfulness in mind for you.