The Journey: Pruned

“You may kiss your bride” were the words my heart had believed for decades would mark the beginning of my happily ever after. While I was seasoned enough to understand that marriage was not all butterflies and rainbows, I truly believed that the fruitful part of my life was truly beginning when I heard those words spoken over us on that alter. When I look back on that moment in time, I can still see how I arrived at that conclusion, however, to call these past seventeen months “fruitful” feels like a bit of a stretch for my heart right now.

Entering happily into this season expecting a lot of blooming, blossoming and growing, I quickly discovered that God, the Master Gardner, had something else in mind for us entirely.  Although the hands of the Gardener are always careful not to kill or break off, the life being pruned often has a different perspective.  In the past seventeen months, God, with his pruning shears has cut away the bread-winning job in our household -twice. Has pruned away the joy of pregnancy.  He called our sweet newborn son into his arms in heaven shortly after birth. He has welcomed a beloved grandmother home to heaven, and has allowed for personal challenges inherent with a new marriage on top of many other personal ones. It is a season that has at times felt un-recoverable - almost as if His pruning shears went too far and accidentally severed us from His vine.  But in our hearts we know that is impossible, He knows exactly what he is doing and what is best.  It simply does not feel that way for us in the thick of this season in our lives.

So we have held onto that vine with all of our strength. With every whispered prayer and every cry of our hearts we have held tight as we have also been held.  As is often the case, lest the prun-ee become discouraged and wither, God being the ultimate Master Gardener has also plied us with fertilizer in order to strengthen and prepare us to grow and produce fruit when the season and timing are right.  During this difficult time, He gave us each other to cling to during these impossible days.  He provided community around us to sustain, encourage and to help us stay connected to His vine when we were weakest. He sheltered us in our cozy home, provided a secondary income to help make ends meet and whispered directly to our hearts of the hope of future fruit and harvest inherent in pruning. Being pruned is all about practicing a faith and belief that there is more hope and beauty ahead than what our eyes can see in the moment. Pruning is not just a lesson in gardening, it is a lesson in faith: believing in and hoping for what cannot be seen in this season.  

         -“For, before the harvest, when the blossom is gone and the flower becomes a ripening grape, he will cut off the shoots with pruning knives, and cut down and take away the spreading branches.”

~ Isaiah 18:5

* This is my latest piece for Heartland's weekly online devotional called The Journey....

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