The Rose and The Pruning Process
Earlier this week my sister, Becky, sent me a text saying
she had a thought she wanted me to blog about.
Little did she know that the subject matter she wanted me to discuss had
already been on my mind; however, I just didn’t know how to put it into words…until
now.
I don’t put much out there about myself and the issues I
face, mainly because I don’t think people want to read about my problems nor the
problems others may be facing. I think
people want to be encouraged and inspired to get out of the problems and issues
their facing and want to find solutions to which they don’t have answers; thus
this blog.
The text I received from Becky had a beautifully illustrated
account of how life can be one of two things…a mess or a beautiful site. The choices we make can affect the outcome of
our situations and either make things messy or, if we leave it alone, face the
issues we have to face and allow God to maneuver things the way there supposed
to go, the outcome will be beautiful.
You may be asking yourself the question millions of people
ask everyday; why am I facing this? We
ask that question a lot during life. Why
does life seem to be going so well and then all of a sudden, we’re faced with
issues or problems we’ve never had to face or dealing with repeat issues? The answer could be found in a process called
PRUNING.
I know that many of you know what pruning is, but I wanted
you to see the definition I ran across on Wikipedia concerning the process. “Pruning is a horticultural
practice involving the selective removal of parts of a plant, such as branches,
buds, or roots. Reasons to prune plants
include deadwood removal, shaping (by controlling or directing growth),
improving or maintaining health, reducing risk from falling branches, preparing
nursery specimens for transplanting, and both harvesting and increasing the
yield or quality of flowers and fruits. The practice entails targeted
removal of diseased, damaged, dead, non-productive, structurally unsound, or
otherwise unwanted tissue from crop and landscape plants. Specialized pruning
practices may be applied to certain plants, such as roses, fruit trees, and grapevines.”
Maybe God is
allowing us to face things in order to shape us. Maybe he’s removing things from our lives
because he knows its dead and will be unproductive. Or maybe, He’s allowing us to face our “issues”
because He knows we can deal with it and by doing so we’ll be a better and more
improved person for having gone through it.
Whatever the reason, He knows that because we were able to face the
pruning process, we’ll have a better “harvest” and be able to yield a higher quality
life for others to see.
When we take
matters into our own hands we can ruin what God has in store for us. When we try to make a rose bloom without
waiting for nature to take its course, we’ll end up with missing petals and a
mess on a stick. However, if we allow
time to pass and the rose to absorb what’s needed to grow, bud and then bloom
what we end up with is a beautiful site that can fill a room with a sweet scent.
Timothy Spell
sings a song written by Frank O’Brien called When God Unfolds The Rose.
The chorus of the song says, “When God unfolds the rose He always gets
it right. When the petals are in place
oh, its such a beautiful site. God knows
when to hold on and the perfect time to let go.
So let God have his way and watch God unfold the rose”.
We have a choice
to make. We can allow God to hold our
hand through the pruning process and let him unfold our life into a beautiful,
sweet smelling rose. Or, we can chose to
do things our way and end up with a mess on a stick. The decision is ours to make….I think I want
to be a beautiful rose for others to enjoy.
Just my thoughts
on a page….
