The Master Gardener

I have tried to plant a garden several times. Every time it has failed miserably. I’m a bad gardener and I think it’s because of my extreme personality. It seems that I try to force things that aren’t quite ready and working in short spurts. I push things hard even before they’re ready. I easily loose focus after the initial excitement passes and and start working on other projects at which time, the garden invariably falls into disrepair. Gardening is a slow process of cultivation. Great gardens don’t happen by accident, they happen because of continual, focused, concerted effort.

It seems that God is a lot like that. God is patient. He waits for us. He gives us what we need to grow and to thrive. Then He waits a little longer. He realizes that there are different times and seasons for action. He doesn’t easily give up. There is a time for planting, a time for watering, for weeding, for harvesting, for pruning. Yes, pruning is an aspect of gardening that is under discussed. A pruner has to cut away branches, even healthy ones so that the plant will grow bigger and stronger.

God is like a master pruner, cutting away even things that we want so that we can re-grow bigger and stronger. He has a plan for each of us, an ideal with which we should strive. Using this analogy, I have seen God cut away seemingly good ministries and programs to allow for even more fruit to be borne. This has happened to me several times. As painful as it is at the time, it always amazes me the way that times of strife call people to grow in holiness. I have been pleasantly surprised by the leadership and growth I have seen from people. God has a master plan that he is leading his Church toward.

God certainly prunes us and challenges us to grow. Just like the tree can’t understand the why the gardener is cutting away certain branches, we can’t always see why God is pruning us the way he is, and it is only in retrospect that we can catch glimpses of God’s plan. It’s not always what we want, but always what we need.