Pruning

As our first frost settles in, I’m keeping the gardening season going just a little longer through one more reflection. One of the hardest lessons for a gardener is pinching or pruning. It feels counterintuitive. You spend weeks nurturing delicate seedlings, watching them sprout, carefully tending soil, light and water. When they finally reach a point of strength, you take snips to them. At first, it feels like undoing progress, but over time, I’ve realized that the very act that feels like loss is what allows life to flourish even more abundantly.

Seed starting itself requires resilience. Soil needs mixing. Trays must be sanitized. Lights and shelves need arranged. Seeds are tucked into dirt with hope that something small and hidden will break through. Then comes vigilance through daily attention to fragile seedlings as they push toward the light. With time and care, stems stretch and strengthen. Then just when everything seems to be going well, it’s time to pinch the plant.

Pruning is not punishment though; it’s formation. It shapes the plant into what it was meant to become. I’ve learned to trust this process because I’ve seen its fruit: fuller blooms, branching plants and richer harvests.

Jesus even highlighted the benefit of pruning and used it as a metaphor for our spiritual lives:

He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit,
and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more.
John 15:2

Pruning can feel uncomfortable and even painful. It strips away what looks promising, what we’ve grown attached to or what we thought we needed. Yet just as a gardener sees beyond the single stem to the abundance to come, God sees beyond our momentary discomfort to the flourishing He intends for us.

Sometimes pruning looks like removing distractions or habits that choke out our joy. Other times, it’s the trimming of pride, hurry or fear. Often, it’s the quiet redirection of our hearts through small, intentional acts of repentance, reflection, generosity and love.

What I appreciate most is this: pruning is always done with care. Trust me! The Gardener does not cut recklessly. Each pinch and trim is an act of love, preparing us for deeper growth. The cut is never the end. It’s always the beginning of abundance.

This season, as I cut back tender stems, I was reminded again that growth often requires the pain of pruning. Gardening isn’t about perfection. Rather it requires attention, patience and trust in the rhythm of tending, cutting and waiting. So it is with God.

We are invited to trust His pruning hand and to believe that the harvest ahead will be sweeter than what we left behind. The blooms may fall. The stems may bend, but the Gardener is faithful. The fruit will come if we simply MAKE ROOM for Him. He is the treasure. He is the prize.