22/06/2022
LESSON FROM THE GARDEN.
I had a small moment of revelation and encouragement tonight. It encouraged a few of my good friends, so I thought I would share it here with you, too. Maybe you could use a little encouragement and hope? If so, read on. It’s long, but I hope it refreshes you.
I have been grieving (and in a verrry slow recovery from PCS) for over two years, because multiple (8+) concussions have taken the ability to teach kids with autism in a school district away from me. They have also made it very difficult to function with daily migraines and a struggle to concentrate and focus after about an hour of work at a time, among other things.
Now, while I have seen God both slowly healing me and directing me elsewhere with the skills and abilities I still have, in the time I have to use them (before my brain gives out)…I never really thought about things like I did tonight.
Pictured here below are my two and three year old grape vines. Guess how many times I have pruned them this year alone?
This is only a 12 foot, two-vine vineyard, and I have to prune out bleeders every week, sometimes more than once a week. It takes about fifteen minutes to a half hour for me. I just finished pruning it tonight and it made me think of all of us. And how many times God has had to prune…me? LOL
But LOOK AT ALL THE GRAPES I HAVE STARTING THIS YEAR ALREADY!
And because earlier this year I pruned off oh, 20 or more bleeders that already had baby grapes on them but were too many for these vines to support AND THRIVE at the same time, the ones that I LEFT ON THE VINE are getting big and plentiful-looking fast! They will be bigger, healthier, and even purportedly have higher sugar content (be sweeter) because the bleeders won’t be stealing energy or nutrients from them anymore. They will be hardier and more resistant to disease, and even grow faster, for the same reason.
Think about this metaphorically. Like: God is our vine dresser. Jesus is the strong root system. Etc.
Maybe you know that parable of Jesus as the true vine. And maybe you knew all of that about growing grapes already…but there’s more to it.
In the pictures you can see what I pruned off just tonight (a lot!), including some with new baby grapes starting. You would think you’d want to keep ALL the fruit, right? It’s saddening when I have to throw away the babies, but I know it’s for the best.
You can see how big the others are getting as a result of my constant work! This will be my first harvest—after three years of work.
Some things you might NOT know about growing grapes:
The vine dresser chooses which canes and/or spurs (bearing vines and stubs) to keep, and which to cut off. He spaces them a hand width apart and counts how many spurs or canes each two year or three year or older vine can have and each year that number can increase if the vine stays healthy and gets thicker and stronger.
He keeps a couple trimmed in reserve for each lateral cane, and even one or two at the base of the main trunk (pictured)…so that if part of the vine becomes diseased, he can allow that pruned off stub to grow a new cane and use it to replace the dead or diseased or weak or too-crooked one he cuts out. Sometimes if the roots survive but the main trunk dies or is diseased…he cuts out ALL the old stuff, and he lets that spare trunk grow up to take the place of the whole entire system. From the same root system, the base of the same main trunk.
So:
When stuff hits the fan and you’ve made so many wrong turns or wrong choices, or a disease or injury has taken you out of the plan you had for your life and you thought God did too, or for whatever other derailment of your fruit-producing ability you can think of…know that God, unlike me, is a master vine dresser.
He knows EXACTLY which pieces of vine, which spurs, we need to be keeping to bear the right amount of the very best quality fruit—and which ones we need to lose, to THRIVE.
Maybe you have been trying to do too much, with too many “good” things in your life. You are burning out.
Or maybe not, but you aren’t able to do as good a job as you’d like to because your energy is being sapped by a bleeder. Or a lot of bleeders.
Maybe you are in recovery. You feel useless. You can’t bear what you could easily bear before.
Recognize God’s pruning. Allow him to prune you. And redirect your energy where He is helping you go.
If anything goes terribly awry, remember you are not a lost cause as long as your roots remain strong in Jesus! God can cut out the dead and diseased and let that spare vine grow—even if your whole “life” has to start over!
For the first year or two, He will not allow the new vine to bear any fruit at all… He will place the vine just so on its support system and prune it just so to develop the right spurs for later. He will grow the vine for strength and health…and Then he will let it begin to bear again.
You CAN still get back to bearing the perfect amount of GOOD FRUIT!
How much has God pruned your life this week or this year or this season?
Have you allowed His pruning or do you keep growing bleeders as fast as He can cut them?
Do you hide your bleeders under big leaves until they are 8” or a foot long in hopes He won’t notice and take them away from you? Do they have baby fruit on them already?
What kind of harvest is He expecting you to bear and pruning you to grow strong and healthy for?
It all takes time and it’s a process that can take wrong turns. Pay attention and grow where He directs you. Notice the pruning as DIRECTION and STRENGTHENING HELP.
Even when you struggle and feel weak and useless… Grow where He directs you.
What derailments has He regrown backup spurs to replace in your life?
For me it’s replacing my former, super fulfilling, super fruitful, good branch for a season—that became injured and weak over time—my in-person 80+ hour a week teaching commitment—with learning to depend on others more, learning I am not God or superwoman, learning to depend on God more than on my own abilities (didn’t even realize I was doing that)…being home with my family…learning to commune and BE STILL with God…and with part-time (painful but a dream come true) novel writing and starting the Special Needs Spa! (So far!) SLOWLY!!!!!! LOL. Painfully. It was a big wound.
Isn’t it awesome that God is a master and that no matter what happens, He has a plan…and He knows EXACTLY how much fruit we are personally ready and healthy enough to produce AND THRIVE (or heal) AT THE SAME TIME? And when a once great fruit-producing thing is no longer THE RIGHT thing for us?