The Texas Sage needed a trim badly. She wasn't happy about it - but as I explained to her as I lovingly snipped away, it was for her own good. In just a few weeks she would be much healthier and stronger and producing those beautiful purple-pink flowers I love (and she loves to wear).
I think she looks a bit sulky, but she will just have to trust me on this one. It will all work together for her good.
The little flower garden was next. There was not the loud groaning and complaining from these children. There were so many lifeless limbs, there could be no doubt they had to come off.
I think I heard little sighs of gratitude when I refastened the little gate. All was clean and fresh - ready for new growth.
The whole time I was cutting and carting off dead and discarded branches I thought about the way the Father works in my own life. There are times I know that I desperately need Him to come and do a work in my life. There is only gratitude when the hard work is done and something new is beginning.
There are other times, however, when I think things are going along just fine, thank you very much, and He comes to lovingly prune away the things that are keeping me from becoming all He desires me to be. The process is often times painful as I cling to the familiar and question His ways. He promises me, in these times, that He is working all things together for my good. His love for me is deeper, wider, and higher than my mind can conceive. He asks only that I trust Him.
"Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it, that it may bear more fruit."
John 15:2
"Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!"
Romans 11:33
Blessings,
Linda
