The Rose and The Pruning Process

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….