So, let me start with my tomato plants. The tomatoes haven't looked healthy. Now I am not usually a name caller, but some of the fruit kinda looks deformed, funny looking, maybe even rotting? But the plants themselves look full, green, healthy and growing taller everyday.
Now mind you this is our first year of being gardeners, and admittedly we have lots to learn. I found out according to one google search, that the stems with "leaves only" should be cut back because they are stealing the good nutrients from the stems that are trying hard to grow the tomatoes.
So, I did what it said. I mean I really did....my plants almost seem embarassed now from their nakedness! (Is there a website to order custom vegetable covering?) I did exactly as it had said to do... cut back every stem with leaves only, and leave all the stems with the little flower buds or tiny green tomatoes. Yikes. Looking at them now, I think most would shake their heads and say, "Better luck next year!" And, I admit I am feeling nervous that I may have done them in, cut too much, gone too far. Time will tell us if this will indeed be the very thing my plants needed to grow healthier, more beautiful tomatoes...or the shameful death of them all.
So here is what has been rattling around in my heart, a whisper I heard early in the summer, a conviction really. Funny how God would use my tomato plants to continue to teach me and get my attention.
I have noticed that very often the plant of my life looks full. No, really... growing tall, seems healthy, lots of green leaves just a waving in the breeze. And to be sure, many of the leaves are good leaves. Good things. But I have felt the need to ask God this summer to prune away that which is good, so that which is best can grow fuller and more beautiful.
I want to be a good listener when He says..lay this down, give this up, change this plan, do this differently...His ways are best. He knows what fruit He has in mind for my life, why do I fear or fight letting His shears get close to my leaves....the green leaves that appear to be healthy and full? I want to trust that when He cuts away anything, it is with great purpose and precision.
Now mind you, I didn't give my tomatoes a choice...ready or not there I sheared!! In my gardener wisdom ( I hear my vegetables out there mocking me!), I understand that to cut back, means greater growth.
God doesn't always give us a choice in our pruning or wait until we ask. In His sovereign love for us, and His desire to see the beautiful plan of our lives unfold, He starts clipping away at the lesser things. Making room for the God things. Oh, I want the God things. I want what will last for eternity. A harvest unimaginable.
But too often I allow the things that mean little, to take away from the things that mean the most. The things I desire to do, the most important things, I often fail to do, because of busyness, distractions, selfishness. My leaves hinder my fruit.
I don't know much about gardening, don't know much about much. But, I do know this. Jesus said that He is the Vine and we are the branches. Our life nutrients and vitality come through Him. In fact, He is very clear...apart from Him, we can do nothing!
Ask Him what "good" leaves may be hindering the vital flow to the greatest, most wonderful, and for sure the sweetest fruit you've ever known, or grown for that matter.
