This morning’s devotion comes to us from Bonnie Poon Zahl.
I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me…(John 15:1-5, ESV)
When we think of being “pruned” by God, it’s easy to think of minor cuttings, small challenges that do us good, but perhaps harder to think of the severe changes that might drastically affect our lives in too painful a way.
To the gardener, however, pruning a plant looks like cutting off living branches—taking significant lengths off of a perfectly healthy branch to encourage new growth. This is true of what Jesus is saying, too: being pruned oftentimes feels very painful, as if some large part of you that was once deeply connected to life has been severed. It can feel as though one’s wounds have been left raw to face the elements. It can feel like God has deliberately disconnected Himself, and one’s protests are met only with silence.
We can take heart from Christ’s words: God prunes every branch that doesn’t bear fruit, so that it will be even more fruitful. Every saint who has been “fruitful” has dealt with the emotional loss of having been pruned. The Gardener is lovingly ruthless. He severs parts of our connection to the vine—even connections that do not appear in need of pruning—so that we can bear more. Because He abides in us and we in Him, we can be certain that even the most painful pruning experiences are for the sake of His great love.
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I’ve always read this passage like it was talking about heaven and hell, salvation and damnation. If you didn’t bear fruit, you were cut off and damned to hell. For the longest time, this was my lens for interpreting most parts of Scripture, and it’s got to the point now where I’m too anxious to read the Bible by myself. Despite this, I find it reassuring to consider the fact that a when a branch is cut off from a tree, it actually grows back and becomes stronger and healthier. Perhaps God is more than a cosmic referee who is looking for every opportunity to disqualify us, and is rather working in everything, even in judgement, suffering, or discipline/punishment, for the good of all his creatures.