If my rose bushes could talk

I am giggling on the inside about the title of this blog.  Of course, rose bushes can't talk.  But if they could, I wonder what they would have said the other day when I was pruning my two Knockout rose bushes.  You may remember the day beauty came back into my life in the midst of a mess.  

I was trimming some dead buds off of the tips of the rose bush branches.  I was hoping that I didn't leave it empty of red roses once I was done.  I kept pruning and cutting.   When I stepped back to take in the view of the two bushes, I noticed something.  

The rose bushes were ablaze of red color.  

There were so many new buds and blooming roses dotting the green lush branches, it was as if 100 roses had instantly appeared.  I didn't even know where I had cut any of the dead tips off.  My kitchen shears had not made a dent in their beauty.  There were so many roses waving at me for my attention.

The dead buds that I had cut had fallen to the base of the bush and disappeared.  The blooming and budding roses that still remained on the bush seemed to have multiplied.  Sitting pretty atop their branches...they were shouting at me, as if to say thanks for the taking time to cut off the dead and the ugly.  

“We feel so much better now; it's as if you just gave us some deep sips of Miracle grow."   

Oh… if my roses could talk what would they say? 

The growth that I noticed from the pruning was remarkable. It was noticeable.  It was all I could look at.  And it was really there the whole time.    

And then God said..."That's what I am doing in you.  I am pruning you."  

God used my pruning time as His pruning time.

John 15:1-2:  "I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.  

He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful."

There is richness that comes from God's pruning.  Sometimes God has to cut us to the root so new things can grow.  When these verses are applied to my life I can see that God has his kitchen shears handy.  Pruning is a necessary process for faith growth.  If the dead tips or branches aren't taken off, the bush will get overgrown and unfruitful.  Without pruning there would not be new growth or new buds of beauty.

When pruning happens in your life, let me encourage you to look to what you would be gaining instead of losing.  If your Gardener appears to be cutting things away, he knows the buds of life that are about to pop out.    He knows and sees the greater abundance of fruit that you could bear.

You might shout that it's painful.  All pruning can be or is a little painful, or maybe in your garden, a lot of pain is involved.  But let me give you a little rosy hope here....the removal of those dead places is worth the new life that will bud in your heart.  There are many blessings we never experience until we are ready to let God do some removing or disciplining.  The path of suffering or pain is the only way to reach the beauty that He has planned for each one of us.

Proverbs 3:11-12 "My son, do not despise and do not resent his rebuke because the Lord disciplines those he loves, as a father the song he delights in."

Cutting the dead away will allow the new to shout into your soul.  But you have to allow the Gardener to do his holy work on your overgrown and unkempt heart.  

Do you question the number of trials in your life? Do you look at God's discipline as a negative instead of a positive?   There are always good lessons of correction to learn in God’s garden.  The Gardener stops pruning, trimming, shaping and weeding the branches or soil only when He expects nothing more from the vine during that season.  

God wants us to bear his name; his fruit is the profit from his pruning actions.  

The Gardner of the Vine wants us to be shaped by His truth.   There are some godly fruit that still needs to be produced.  The harvest is beautifully bountiful if we let God knockout our lifeless vines and allow the Gardner’s holy handy work.   

What needs pruning in your life?