Raspberry Lessons

*Typed while enjoying Bigelow "I Love Lemon" tea! YUM!

I spent most of today working on pruning and cleaning up my raspberry bushes. The weather  was just right and they really needed some an immense amount of attention. I managed to get 1/4th of the bushes pruned, the dead canes cut out and weeding begun. We are going on two years of neglect, so it will take more than one day to finish the job. After all the weeding, pruning and dead cane removing, they will have to be mulched with the chicken-finished goat mulch. They are excellent at making mulch and it makes the garden grow fantastically!

Here are a couple of photos of what I accomplished so far:

This is the mess I am dealing with!

Still looking messy, but the canes are tied

A closer look at the tied canes

As I prune and clean these up I think on John 15 where the Lord explains to the disciples that He is the true vine and the Father is the husbandman. Every branch that does not bear fruit he takes away. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes that it may bear more fruit.Then He goes on to say that unless we abide in the vine we cannot bear fruit and that it is as we abide that we bring forth much fruit...because without the Lord Jesus Christ, we can do nothing.

I wonder as I carefully tend these berries if that is how the Lord works on our hearts. Cutting out the dead branches and casting them aside, as I've done, pruning those things from us that hinder our walk, the dead works and feeble attempts at living this life without Him, they lose life and dry up and die. They are only good for the fire!

Those branches that remain are budding forth with life and with the promise of bearing abundant fruit for the season, just as our hearts and lives bear fruit as we abide in  His love and presence and are nourished from His life-giving Word. To be connected to Him is our very life!

This is what I think of over and over as I snip and prune and pull weeds and tie the canes into orderly rows. I imagine the fruit that will grow and pray that God will be blessed with much good fruit from my heart and life for His Kingdom as I grow into His likeness.

I absolutely enjoy working in my gardens, this process of cleaning up the mess from two years of neglect is an opportunity to take the many lessons that Jesus taught and apply them to real life lessons.

God started it all in a garden, and I can totally see why!

I pray that as you spend time in His presence you will allow Him to tend you and prune you so that you may bear abundant fruit, fit for the Master's use! Amen

What gardening are you doing at your Home-Sweet this week?