Awkward Trees

 

I was sitting in line at the pharmacy drive-up window like I have dozens of times before when I saw the tree. Maybe it was because it was a bright sunny day, but I’m surprised I hadn’t ever noticed it before. Its awkward, man-made shape caught my attention – even though I’ve seen the same sort of thing before. In order to keep the electrical wires safe that had invaded the tree’s habitat, workers had severely cut back the branches, leaving a gaping hole in the middle of one side of the tree. 

I’m not much of a gardener, but I know that proper pruning of plants and trees can actually make them healthier. The same is true for humans. In John 15:2, Jesus likened his followers to grapevines and told his disciples that God the Father prunes every branch that bears fruit so that we (the branches) will produce even more fruit. Pruning can hurt for a moment, but in the Father’s loving hands it always brings about his purposes and what is best for us. 

But I’m not sure that what happened to the tree I was looking at could be classified as “proper” pruning! And yet the tree continued to grow and appeared to be very healthy. Sometimes we as humans get “cut back” by forces outside our control – things in life that just happen to us because we live in a fallen world. People mistreat us, natural phenomena occur, and health issues happen. Life doesn’t always treat us “fairly”, whatever that is. We get pruned, but not necessarily by loving hands. 

How do we respond when these things happen? Do we, like the tree, continue to grow and be healthy? Or do we wither and die? We can become bitter and useless, or we can trust that God is sovereign and holds us in his hand, no matter what happens to us. Whether the pruning comes directly from him or from another source, we can be sure that God is not surprised and is fully capable of bringing about growth in our lives through it all. We just have to choose to respond in a way that pleases him and look to him to make sense out of what life throws our way. He is the only one who can take what we call “bad” and bring “good” out of it (Romans 8:28). 

Like the tree, we may look a little different than those around us and feel like part of us is missing; but we will still be healthy and able to bear fruit again for his kingdom. And that’s all that really matters in the end.