Pruning to the Core

Pruned Plum

It's been one of those days. Highs and lows. It was lovely, sunny, and mildly springlike as the sun came up over the community garage sale. Clearing out some of the treasures that tend to build up over time is always fun. Like clearing out the cobwebs, I suppose. Of course, we only sell those 'treasures' that we are ready to part with and probably never turn loose of all that we should.  Even though it is a lot of fun, we hardly ever come out with much of a profit...there is always something else we absolutely must buy. This must be an American phenomenon. 

I returned home to find little baby peaches on my trees and my plum tree in full bloom. Well, maybe not FULL, but more in bloom than it has ever been. I baby this tree way too much. We had a plum tree when I was growing up and I stand determined to get plums on this tree.  Last year I had blossoms but that April storm ripped it all apart. We start over. I am hoping that the deep pruning resulting from that storm will prove fruitful. 


Afternoon brought some fun time with old friends. Not old as in age, but old as in from a few years back. We don't get to see each other often enough, yet God caused our paths to cross for a reason, and that thankfulness continues. We just seem to pick up where we left off. Even more fun was the "kids" who are by no means kids anymore. What wonderful young adults they have become. I always knew they would. It was fun to hear from our 'almost newlyweds' the story of how she came to tour TMA and did not want to be there at all, yet two people spent a little time with her and her mind was changed. I never knew that, though I do remember that first meeting. Because she came to TMA and got involved in a program with a wonderful group of kids, she ended up meeting and dating what would become a great friendship and the love of her life. (Well, he better be the love of her whole lifetime!...I believe that will come to pass)  Funny....chance meeting....taking a little time with a young person....that meeting changed her life. Well, not really funny at all, but deep and meaningful and life-changing...and yet that is how God works. Mysteriously almost all the time.

Parting was such sweet sorrow....I never really thought about that, but sweet because it was a sweet time, but sorrow because the house was so quiet and so empty when they all left.  Walk the dog. Return to quiet and emptiness. It was almost suffocating. How do you go from such a high to such sadness in just moments? I guess grief is like that. You never ever know when it is going to hit and what is going to set it off. 

Then I thought about that plum tree. Beautiful, blooming, full of fragrance a year ago. Then suddenly a violent storm blew through and ripped off all the buds, left it a mess. Then the pruning was pretty deep. I wondered if it would ever survive.  But look.... a year later, it is more beautiful than it ever had been before.  Only God could do that. 

I wondered what Roger's Lesson might be, simply because gardening was not his thing, although he would always collect and take to the curb all that I had pruned away. I wonder if it might not be that sometimes traumatic things happen in our lives, and sometimes a deep pruning is necessary. Sometimes it has to be taken back to your core, your foundation. But the result is something more beautiful.....if it is done right. 

Maybe in my case, doing it right would be to just keep trusting God. No matter how I may feel or what emotion may surface, trust God. No matter how lonely or quiet it seems, use that quiet time to trust God. Rejoice in the good and joyful times but also rejoice in the sad times because through it all,  you've just got to trust God.  And yes, I have to because sometime so very long ago I was taught that it really was the best way, and through the years I have seen it lived out. 

And this pruning of my stable, normal, ordinary life is not so much fun......but I am going to trust God that a year from now, we are going to see something really beautiful come out of it.