As I start to write on a blank, fresh page, I ponder and reflect on the last 2.5 years of my life. If I could use one word to sum it all up. PRUNING. The very word just sounds awful. What does a season of pruning look like? Well I can't speak for anyone else but myself and I will try to give you the best visual that I possibly can with my words.
There are different degrees to cuts, and wounds. The deeper the cut,the longer the healing process is. It's not rocket science, it's actually quite simple. When we compare a person who gets cut by a knife while cutting celery, to someone who undergoes open heart surgery, who is going to take longer to heal? Obvious answer right? Well, let's put that in life realities. A lot of times we will watch someone go through a healing process of some type. And lot of times we can put judgement on that person to start moving on with their life, and "get over it". Well after a week of recovery from heart surgery do we tell the patient to suck it up and go for a good jog around the block? Of course not, because if that happened, major complications could occur. Well the same analogy applies to life's cuts, and bruises. We need to allow ourselves to heal, we need to take the steps to heal. Because if we don't, we can re-injure ourselves, and the healing process can take that much longer.
There also comes a point in the healing process when you do NEED to get up, and starting running again. Because if we don't, strength cannot be built. If you have witnessed anyone doing physio after a painful injury, it's torture for them. But when guided, and pushed by the physio therapist, healing, strength and range of motion come back to the injured part of the body. I'm sure you can see where I'm getting at.
Let me try to paint a picture in your mind that of a pruned tree: First word, ugly, desolate, isolated, lonely, bare, plain,gray,lifeless, fruitless. Now that is what we see on the OUTSIDE. What we don't see is what's going on on the inside of the tree. The tree is preparing itself inside to WAIT for the right season to blossom. What's the whole point of pruning a tree or bush? So that in the right season, the branches, and leaves are FULLER, and therefore allowing the tree to produce MORE fruit than it has ever before.
Now let me paint you the picture of a fully blossomed tree AFTER the pruning stages: Luscious in color, bountiful,beautiful, plentiful,full,lots and lots of juicy fruit, or whatever that tree produces. Now it's easy to judge that tree and be attracted to it, and want to draw to it and from it. However if we didn't know that tree from the beginning stages we would never know what that poor tree had to go through in order to be able to produce such raw beauty.
It's easy for us to judge someone else's outside, as it may look messy, bare,ugly,dysfunctional. God's word talks about how one can identify what kind of tree it is, by what kind of fruit it bears. However it's quite hard to identify what kind of tree it is before their season of pruning is over. Unless you are a tree expert, you can't tell an orange tree from an apple tree without it's fruit on it's branches can you? My point? We may not see fruit in someone else's life,but little do we know that they may be in a season of no fruit, but that of preparing for all the fruit to come. And to bear a lot of fruit, one needs to build the strength to produce it.
Through all this "pruning" that I have experienced in my life, I have learned so much, but if I could write about just one thing it is this: Allow people to be themselves. Allow them to heal on THEIR time, not on your expectations. You are there to guide,love, and help them through the "physio" time, but only when they ASK you.
We can't expect people to bear the fruit that they have been asked to bear on our time table. That's why I believe building relationships with people, especially those that are different from us,are so important. Because even though some one's "outside" (I'm not talking about physical outside, but metaphorically life) may look "ugly" and unattractive, little do we know, what kind of beautiful miracle is going on on the inside.
1 comment:
Tammy this was wonderful! And so true.
Jason and I are doing "pruning" in our life. And from the outside looking in people see the ugly parts of our family tree and I am sure question why we don't just set fire to it. They don't see the cut we have made right to the roots. And the new growth in our family tree. New love, new honesty, new trust, new support systems.
We are doing it on our terms in our time. And it is hard to be judged by people who don't care to understand that our family means so much that much to us that we will go though great pains to rebuild.
Thanks for this :)
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