Winter The Season of Pruning in Our Lives | Previous Challenge Entry

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TITLE: Winter The Season of Pruning in Our Lives | Previous Challenge Entry
By Bill VanAalst
08/19/09
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Where I live there is a small apple orchard near my house. When I say small I mean small. The orchard is about one acre in size. The trees all are mature apple trees: probably planted around the same time and it is meticulously well taken care of. There is a white wooden fence that surrounds the small orchard. It’s the kind of fence that one would expect to see on a ranch. Even its location is rather unique. In fact, it is located in urban suburb with houses all around it and even a high rise apartment complex nearby.

Every March a group of 3 to 5 men go out into orchard armed with ladders and pruning saws with the intent to prune the apple trees. I’ve watched these men prune the trees. Each tree has to be prune individually. There is definitely an art to properly pruning fruit trees.

The reason why they prune the trees is so that they bear better quality fruit.
The idea behind pruning is to shape the tree similar to an umbrella; minus the fabric covering. All the branches should shoot out from the trunk like the metal framework an umbrella. If the tree is shaped in this manner all the fruit will all get adequate sunlight to ripen evenly and all the fruit will be about the same size on all the branches.

In the gospel of John the fifteenth chapter Jesus refers to the Father as: “The Gardener.” Then it goes on to explain that the Father cuts off branches that no longer bear fruit and he prunes or shapes the rest of the branches so that they produce more fruit.

Pruning is process that we all go through whether we realize it or not. Just like a fruit tree is pruned in the winter season. Often times we are pruned by God in a winter season in our lives. Just the fruit tree is pruned not for the trees sake but so that it can bear more fruit. Often time’s things are pruned out of our lives by God
so we also can bear more fruit.

Pruning is also absolutely necessary. If a fruit is not pruned on a routine basis it will have a detrimental impact on the fruit. I believe that God lovingly prunes all his children and that having an understanding of the pruning process will help us appreciate God.

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