The Master Gardener

I look at the times when various types of trouble come to us as being "seasons" in our life. I believe that many, if not all of them are sent from God … the master gardener.

You may be going through a "season" where something has happened that brought you to a point of anger or distrust with God because He didn't give you the answer to prayer you thought you needed or wanted. It may be that you have lost a mate or child by way of death, and now you feel abandoned by God … you are going through a season of grief. Other things may have brought about an indifference to God, growing cold spiritually, being uncaring about other people's problems; maybe a season of complacency that says … what will be will be … being satisfied that this is as good as it gets, etc.

These things are all just seasons in your life. Winter doesn't last forever, spring comes followed by summer; in time it fades into autumn, which is a time of beauty both in nature and hopefully in your life … by growing older and a little wiser as we go through each season God prepares for us.

Spring … one of natures seasons brings with it new growth to plants; buds appear, leaves, flowers. It's God's way of saying to us, life is for the living … life is good. There is new hope all around us as nature blooms once again.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-2 … "To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted …"

We need to pay attention to Solomon's words … there are seasons, times appointed by God for His purpose … times unknown to us when He may be planting or plucking up certain things in our lives. Why does He do that?

John 15:1-2 … "I AM the True Vine, and My Father is the Gardener. Any branch in Me that does not bear fruit (that stops bearing) He cuts away (trims off, takes away); and He cleanses and repeatedly prunes every branch that continues to bear fruit, to make it bear more and richer and more excellent fruit."

Do you know that with each new season, everything that grows and blooms needs to be pruned … including us. With each season.

Proper pruning enhances a plant’s beauty, while improper pruning can ruin or greatly reduce its potential. It is better not to prune than to do it incorrectly.

By using improper pruning methods healthy plants are often weakened or deformed. Proper pruning includes … to cut or lop off undesired twigs, branches or roots; trim to rid or clear away anything superfluous or undesirable.

Superfluous … being more than is sufficient or required, excessive, unnecessary or needless. Kind of sounds like a description we could use for man doesn't it? We like more than is required; big houses, big cars just to name two things in the material realm. Then there's our attitude, pride, how we act toward others, etc.

Flowers have different seasons, some in which to grow, blossom and produce new seeds; but at other times they set dormant through cold periods like winter. Man in the same way also experiences different seasons.

Jesus when talking about pruning the branches on the vine is very similar in meaning to what is found in the Book of Jeremiah when he speaks of the potter (God) reshaping the clay. They are basically saying the same thing.

Both are saying that we have seasons in our lives where we are reshaped and sometimes even made over on The Potter's Wheel or as the Gardener will do in the proper season of our life, at the proper time and for the proper reason … and that is … prune off undesired growth.

Many things that grow on our branches are fertilized by our fallen nature … spiritual pride and legalism … are just two examples. There are many more. So God snips and reshapes us till we look a little more like His Son. That's the goal of the master gardener … to have our branches produce the same kind of fruit that the vine (Jesus) produced.

A word of warning …

Man can ruin what nature has created. When man, how ever well meaning they are, tries to prune someone else's branches, what is left of the branches are often left damaged, weakened and fruitless. It is best if left to God to prune off the undesired growth that just happens to us through nature.

Matthew 7:3-4 … "And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?
Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?"

How can man (any man) remove the small speck in someone else's eye when they can't see clearly with a beam in their own eye? Only God … the master gardener … can truly reshape the branch so it will produce the best fruit.