The Master Gardener

So, this morning I am pondering gardening in light of Scripture...

As I mentioned in my last post,
right now I sense that I am the seed sown among thorns...
that on many occasions I am allowing myself to be choked out
by things of this world...
So hard to admit...
and, yet, with the admission comes the recognition that a change is in order...

So, what about the good soil? 
The book of Matthew describes it this way:
"And the one on whom seed was sown on the good soil,
this is the man who hears the word and understands it;
who indeed BEARS FRUIT"

And there I see it... fruit-bearing... and I wonder...
Am I truly bearing fruit... or is my branch barren?

Chapter 15 of the book of John has much to say about this fruit-bearing...
and I have read it... again and again...
and there is always something new to see and discover...
(isn't that always the case with the Word of God?)

This bearing of fruit... it means yielding fruit...
which is defined as 'giving forth in return for cultivation'...

So I ask myself:
Who is cultivating?
And I think in some ways the answer surprises me...
It is God.

John 15 states that God is the vinedresser...

This means the one who cultivates vines...
and this cultivating is hard work...
it is labor-intensive... tilling the soil...
preparing and working the soil in order to produce fruit.

I have tried so hard in my life to produce fruit for Him...
But now I begin to see the truth...
I am not the fruit-producer...
I am the soil...

The soil does not do the tilling... the cultivating...
It lets itself be tilled and plowed up and overturned and cultivated.
And then it yields fruit...
because of the work of the Cultivator.

There is so much freedom in this Truth...
The psalmist says it well...
'Cease striving, and know that I am God'
And I hear it...
'Stop trying to cultivate, Lynn... let Me do My job... and you do yours'

And my job seems easier...
until I realize that the tilling is intended to break up clods and
root up weeds... and that can be messy, and ugly, and even painful.

And once the branch starts to bear fruit...
   the pruning begins...
Pruning means to rid or clear of anything superfluous or undesirable...
       by cutting off...
And again I see that this too will be messy... and ugly... and painful.

Yet I find encouragement in these words found in John 15:
'Every branch that bears fruit He prunes,
THAT IT MAY BEAR MORE FRUIT'
and
'I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me,
and I in him, he bears MUCH FRUIT'
and again,
'By this is My Father glorified, that you BEAR MUCH FRUIT,
and so prove to be My disciples'.

Am I willing then...
to be dug up and overturned...
exposed... pruned...
that I may bear MUCH fruit and glorify the Father?

Make me willing, O Lord...