Pruning.

A few weeks ago I joined my husband and his parents for a little work in the apple orchard. I made cinnamon rolls for the crew before we started work. I think eating cinnamon rolls out of the back of a pick-up makes them even more delicious, don't you?

My husband and my father-in-law got to work digging holes for the apple trees. Digging is hard work. 

In fact, it's also long work. Every hole had to be at least a foot wide and a foot deep. A bit of rain the day before had softened the ground, but the work was still time consuming.

We planted a variety of apple trees...Cortland, Fuji, Granny Smith...we even snuck in two pear trees!

After patting down the soil around the trees, we got to work pruning them. Pruning is a funny thing. It feels wrong to prune...cutting the branches off?! What?! 

Andrew has read a lot about pruning and about apple trees. In fact, one of the first things I loved about him was the conversational way he talked about planting and harvesting. 

He's told me a a great deal about pruning. It is absolutely essential to prune a tree. If you don't prune the branches you can have an unhealthy tree, or even lose the tree altogether. Pruning allows the tree to produce fruit in the future. Our trees will wait several seasons to produce any kind of fruit, but the pruning we did a few weeks ago will ensure a great harvest in the future.

I've been thinking a lot about pruning since our work in the apple orchard. How it's necessary. But, often painful. Andrew cares a great deal about these apple trees. As a farmer he knows that pruning is essential for the health of the tree. He prunes the trees because he wants the tree to thrive.

Andrew prunes the apple trees.

God prunes my heart. 

Andrew wants these apple trees to be healthy.

How much more does God want my life to be healthy? How much more does He long for my daily living to produce fruit? How much greater is His desire for me to be rooted and established, growing into His plans for me?