One thing about being knocked down with illness: it gives
you time to reflect. So today, as I lay in bed, I was thinking about that utter
devastation on the roadside verge that I described the other day.
You know,
where the JCB driver had just ripped and torn his way through the branches of
any trees or bushes which he thought were growing too close to the road.
The other day I’d been reflecting on the way our Father the
gardener prunes us gently and thoughtfully so that we grow beautiful and
fruitful.
Today I realized that most of us have the experience of
being pruned like those trees on the roadside. We’ve had people criticise us,
belittle us, ignore us, abuse us, not believe us, and treat us as if we are
worthless.
Some of those times, it has felt as if a limb has been
ripped off, an eye gouged out, or utterly gutted. We may readily recognise the roadside
scene of utter destruction and carnage and identify with it in a painful way.
The good news is that God doesn’t see us like that. The good
news is that God loves us rather foolishly because we don’t really deserve such
lavish love. Maybe we think we deserve to have our sinful habits hacked off in
a painful way, but he doesn’t. He doesn’t need us to be perfect in order to
love us. He doesn’t require us to have everything right before he opens his
arms and draws us into a loving embrace. And he doesn’t rip and tear through
the things that are not quite right. He gently prunes us with loving care and
wisdom.
His grace is enough to melt my heart and make me fall on my
knees before him.
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