The Beauty of Pruning
4:09 PM
The Pruned Branch
It is the branch that bears the fruit,
That feels the knife;
To prune it for a larger growth,
A fuller life,
Though every budding twig be lopped,
And every grace
Of swaying tendril, springing leaf
Be lost a space.
O thou, whose life of joy seems reft,
Of beauty shorn,
Whose aspirations lie in dust,
All bruised and torn,
Rejoice, though each desire, each dream,
Each hope of thine,
Shall fall and fade; it is the hand
Of love divine
That holds the knife, that cuts and breaks
With tenderest touch,
That thou, whose life has borne some fruit
May now bear much.
That feels the knife;
To prune it for a larger growth,
A fuller life,
Though every budding twig be lopped,
And every grace
Of swaying tendril, springing leaf
Be lost a space.
O thou, whose life of joy seems reft,
Of beauty shorn,
Whose aspirations lie in dust,
All bruised and torn,
Rejoice, though each desire, each dream,
Each hope of thine,
Shall fall and fade; it is the hand
Of love divine
That holds the knife, that cuts and breaks
With tenderest touch,
That thou, whose life has borne some fruit
May now bear much.
-Annie Johnson Flint
"Rejoice, though each desire, each dream, each hope of thine...fall and fade."
I'm trying to change the way I view the dissolving of my hopes and dreams - to see the stinging for what it really is...God at work in my life. He's pruning out the things that He, Who sees the whole story, knows to be less than His best.
Go watch this clip, and when you're done laughing, come back here.
That's me. I am that fat little alligator, struggling (and royally failing) to grasp those things that look so good to me. My hopes and dreams aren't bad, per se, but maybe I just can't see the backside of what looks so perfect from my viewpoint.
Bondye konnen. God knows.
Anyone who has come home from the foreign mission field knows and understands when I say that coming home is an adjustment.
Life has its up and downs, and some days it feels like my head is underwater and I am drowning.
God, however, does not fluctuate with my moods and feelings. He's unchanging. He. Is. Always. Good.
And I'm a branch in His care - the pruning may not feel pleasant, but I can trust the One holding the trimmers. Because He's creating not just a beautiful work of art, but one that bears fruit as well.
I think I must be very thickheaded. It seems like I am constantly re-fighting this same battle...to give up and let go. It's almost like I finally give up one dream, only to turn and begin to build another...only to find myself fighting and not wanting to give it up just a few months later. And it is a cycle that just keeps going. You would think that at some point I'd learn...but apparently, since I'm still sitting here in class, and still blogging about it, I haven't yet.
Praise God he still has patience with me.
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| This. Is so comforting. |
Mom started a new, stronger chemo about four weeks ago. She has to go up to Jackson to get it IV every Wednesday. I think she'll be glad when her six-week course is up in about two weeks. She doesn't feel very good since she's on it, always tired, achy, and feeling like she has a flu.
Em, Steph, and I spent last weekend up in PA at Charity's missions conference. Whit and I had talked about going together ever since we came home, and she and six of her siblings drove over and met us there. It was so wonderful to see her again, and get a chance to meet some new faces from her family, plus see a few that I had met previously. We had a blast making, and catching up with, other Haiti connections too. Kate, David, Marcile, Grandpa, Glenden....we all grabbed the chance to sit down around a table together and share a meal together, and it was SO nice to be able to get glimpses into one other's lives.
I even got to meet the legendary Mis Anna Joy (the Haitians always say her name with something akin to reverence in their tone) that I have heard mentioned so many times in the last two years. I could have listened to her and Grandpa swap stories all night long. Her tale of the Boggle game falling out of the window had us laughing so hard we were gasping for air.
Winter storm Olympia decided to crash the party, pushing our plans to drive home on Monday off until Tuesday. Whit and her siblings were planning to drive down to Tennessee with us for a short visit, so they managed to shift their plans around a bit to still come.
We had a good trip. Missions conference was excellent. I cried, amen'd, sang, cheered....was deeply moved, and painfully convicted. Made new friends, and got to reconnect with old ones....it was especially nice to have the chance to meet some of my ex-coworkers' family members; after you've heard so much about some of them, you almost feel like you know them before you even meet them.
Our extra day there gave us girls (we had picked up one of our cousins from North Carolina on the way up) a chance to just relax together without worrying about getting the laundry washed, the dishes done, or the house cleaned and food made. And I hadn't seen any snow worth counting in...over two years. So that was fun. Word of advice - it's not just a joke, what they say about yellow snow....keep your distance.
Tuesday we drove home (the speeds MAY have been increasing as we got close), and got to have a late lunch with Kayla's parents when we dropped her off. Tim and Wilma, thanks again for taking the time to meet us, and for the food - that hour was a highlight of the trip for me (and not because of the food...although it WAS good). :o)
Whit's family somehow managed to work things out to get to spend Wednesday with us (for which I am everlastingly grateful), so we drove down to Shiloh and toured the battlegrounds there for a good part of the day. It was also Donna's birthday (Happy Birthday again, Deen!), so we had cake and ice cream later that night and introduced the Smiths to our way of singing Happy Birthday and, if their facial expressions were any indication, they were...impressed.
Wednesday morning brought hugs and tears as we said goodbye. Whit, you cannot possibly know how much it meant to me to have you come. And to your family, for helping make it happen, THANK YOU.
Today is a lazy Sunday afternoon, with the most excitement that I've seen so far being the kids with their jello at lunch. Glen's are still around at the moment, but I think they plan to head back out to Montana sometime this week.
I read this quote in my devotional the other day, and it made me pause and ponder for a while, so I think I'll close with it;
"Let us sing Hallelujah by anticipation."
-C.H. Spurgeon
Have a good week, and God bless!
-Kindra
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