Bonsai Tree aficionados take the art of pruning to a whole other level. Only the most patient and stalwart of individuals have the patience it takes to trim and shape, with loving attention, these diminutive cousins of the much larger variety living in the great outdoors.
WRITTEN BY MICHELE HANSEN
“He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.” (John 15:2, NIV)
Recently the Lord gave me the image of a Bonsai Tree and how the pruning I was going through was creating a unique and healthy person out of me.
For anyone who tends vines and gardens, whether veggie or bloom, pruning is known to be a necessary action. While it can look like you’re massacring your plants, it’s actually a healthy process for the plant in the long run. The same applies for the pruning we go through as believers.
The pruning metaphor that the Lord uses in the scriptures has the added purpose of causing us to produce more, and healthier, fruit. Sometimes what the Lord “takes away” from us, feels like an unfair and painful punishment. To the experienced believer, while we may cognitively understand the principle, it can still sting and be utterly uncomfortable. But scripture is clear that, like the “grain of wheat”, what must die, eventually yields a harvest of multiplication.
I kind of mixed some biblical metaphors to make a point…the Lord has a purpose for everything He does and in the instance of pruning, He doesn’t sugar coat the reality that some good things in life, in us, must be removed to make way for the better things He has for us. Most of the time, we can’t see the benefit and quite frankly, blame life and sin and the dog because things that seemed so good, have now seemed to dwindle overnight.
It’s not fun. It’s not easy. But it is good.
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5, NIV)
God says that He is the Vinedresser. He is the one shaping and trimming us to become the fruitful, useful, abundant fruit bearers that He wants to work through to bring more and more souls into the garden.
So what’s that got to do with a Bonsai Tree? They don’t produce fruit or multiply or seem to do anything but sit there and look cute.
Honestly, I think the point the Lord was trying to make with me was that each little snip and each binding of the branches is lovingly thought out. There is purpose in each action taken. The tree yields to the gentle and intentional handiwork of the Master Tender. The work never stops…(some little Bonsai’s are over 600 years old.)
We won’t live to be 600 years old, but when we get to heaven, we won’t be an age. The processes the Lord takes us through this side of heaven can be overwhelming at times, completely outside our understanding and difficult to accept, but this we can know…God is our Good Gardener and His care for us works in tandem with His good plan for our lives.
