I must begin by telling you the truth: I am by no means a gardener. I have killed plants that are supposedly "unkillable". It's a sad fact. But I have this tree in my back yard that I have bonded with. I think God uses that tree to reach me, over and over, so I'd like to share that story with you.
We closed on our house in February of this year. The trees and bushes in our yard had been allowed to grow with no intervention, so they were a bit out of control. I opened our guest room window and one of the juniper bushes fell into the room, so I knew something had to be done! I borrowed my father-in-law's electric hedge trimmer and massacred (Stephen's word) the front hedges. I thought Stephen was going to have a stroke!
When it came time to work on the back, I took a different approach. This is my tree, in a photo from the MLS listing of our house:
. The one I refer to is the odd tree out in this photo, and I have no idea why it was planted there. By the time we moved in, this tree had grown outwards a bit more and resembled the Tree of Life at Disney World (without the awesome trunk, of course).
It had begun turning brown, because the volume of limbs meant that not all were receiving the sunlight they needed. I did some research on how to prune a tree, and then realized that I needed to help shape this tree while thinking about what I wanted it to grow into. It reminded me a bit of parenting, because you have to make decisions based on the person you want your child to become, not just what makes them happy in the short-term. I took my time pruning the tree, removing most of the lower branches and shaping it to bloom up, not out. The tree looked great when I was done, but the coolest thing was seeing how quickly the tree blossomed and grew following the pruning! It turned a beautiful shade of green and gained height, and even became home to a family of birds:
You'll realize that one of my favorite parables is (as I mentioned last week) the one with the vine and the branches. I feel closest to God when I'm working with my hands, and it took many hours to prune my tree so He had plenty of time to talk to me. I felt him saying that just like this tree can't flourish if it grows uninhibited, I can't reach my potential if I'm trying to do everything. You have to cut off some of the smaller branches, and cast off the dead, brown ones, and only then can you regain health. I'm not saying I'm perfect at this, because all of you know that I tend to try to do everything. It's an uphill battle for me, but praise be to God that His grace has covered me. Here is a photo of my tree from this morning:
It's time for another pruning, as you can see. There are some flourishing branches near the bottom of the tree, but I know that they must be removed so the tree will gain its "adult" shape. I am thankful that God gave me this illustration, because I know he is working on pruning my life as well. He is helping me focus on the things that are most important in the large scheme of things. One wonderful example comes from this past Friday. If I were still working at UMC, I probably would not have had time to experience this:
Anna Ruth's first pep rally was precious! We love her new school, and our new extended family, so much. This was one of those moments that we won't experience again, and I'm glad God gave me the opportunity to be there. I look forward to reaching my potential on the course He has for me.
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