John 15 reminds us that God is the vine, we are the branches. When we do not bear fruit we will be pruned. As we know from experience this is not a particularly pleasant experience. The vine needs to be firmly rooted in the ground just as we need to stay firmly rooted in God. Then He can work on us to prune as necessary,
The shrubs in my garden are not at the stage of being pruned. Maybe that will come in a few years time. They need to become established first. Something we need to do with God; we are to be established and rooted in Him. To cover the many empty spaces in my garden it seemed good to invest in shrubs. I’m now starting to hide the bare fences and some blossom is appearing on my planting. I needed to start by preparing the soil, just as God prepares our hearts. I had to make the holes (always a problem for me to make them large enough). The shrubs are now in and at this stage I can only tell them by their labels. – clematis, buddleia hydrangea, plus some with names I’ve never heard of before. In actual fact my hydrangea was planted by the previous owner and that is thriving, no doubt due to an abundance of rain.
I hope i can benefit from this slow and careful p[lanting for many years to come. Our witnessing to others is not a quick job, it needs dedication for years. I can only dream of the days when I will be able to sit in the gaarden ans admire. . I imagine the butterflies and flying insects buzzing all around. . I cpmfess I am limited to working on dry days and they are not very plentiful.