And It Feels Like...

I attended an Easter service this weekend; You may have read John 15 before (click here to read John 15) and the most familiar is vs. 5 'I am the vine and you are the branches'.
I was relating most of what the speaker was saying to our adoption; he brought a tree with him, and illustrated with a hand held cutter, how a gardener cuts back the branches, so they will produce fruit; the illustration is, the gardener is the Lord and we are are branches.

I wondered, what am I supposed to be learning during all this, and what is being pruned and why. At this point in my walk with the Lord, I am used to the trimmings the Lord does in my life and while they are painful at times, I'm grateful for those trims.

After a few minutes I started thinking "Lord, to be honest, this has felt like more than just a trim here or there, is there something else I should know?" Right about that time the speaker whipped out a chain saw and fired it up. He cut all the branches off that tree and reduced it to a nub. He said 'sometimes the pruning feels a lot more like this'.

On Friday last week, when I was hearing all the rumors of 2 days....that's when I heard that chain saw fire up. And then on Monday...I felt reduced to a nub.

Reflecting: I recognized the sound of the chain saw, just like I do the garden cutters! None of this is uncharted territory, it's just a different season of pruning in my life...

During the pruning, I never understand what's going on, and all I feel is the pain. After time passes, I look back and think I would never want to go back and be "who I was" before the pruning.

So one day at a time, I put all my efforts toward remaining in the vine because apart from Him, I can do nothing...and my prayer is at the end of all this I will be a little closer to becoming that gigantic Oak tree that I have always hoped to be...
Is. 61:3b ...They will be called the Oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.