Pruning

By Nancy L. Kenaston

February 4, 2024

 

Yesterday I pruned my two blueberry bushes.

I should do this ever year, but often I forget.

They’ve been a bit spindly, because I haven’t.

There are lots of long, thin branches, some producing little or no fruit.

Especially one bush, that was planted too close to a red maple tree, where it competes for space.

 

As I clipped, thinned & trimmed yesterday, I got into a “flow” state, where I began organically looking at the bush, seeing where branches crossed, where limbs were crowded, where limbs were too long & gangly or had altogether died.

 

To help the bush, I started cutting.

 

·       I cut nearly every tip of a branch off, leaving only the first 3-5 branches, depending on how long and healthy the branch was. This reduced the resources need and increased what each fruit would receive, improving the quality of the fruit.

·       I cut branches that were crowded or running into others, increasing the air flow and amount of sunlight where needed.

·       I removed branches that were eventually going to create a crowded or sun-blocked area.

·       I removed every dead branch or tip.

·       I trimmed back very long branches that looked out of place, giving a more pleasing shape to the bush.

·       I let new shoots remain that are coming up where very old branches will soon need to be removed.

 

Reflecting on this, I realized so very many of these “reasons” for cutting back mirror the same type of work God does in our lives.

 

·       Removing what is dead, useless or potentially harmful or damaging to present or future fruitfulness in our lives.

·       Removing what is not lovely, harmonious or pleasing.

·       Raising up new “branches” for future need.

·       Reducing workload or resources needed, so better fruit quality (though lower quantity) results.

·       Making sufficient room/space/time to receive what is needed, to ensure fruitfulness.

·       Preventing future crowding/stress/disease.

 

The same thing goes for my herb garden or berry patch or rose bushes. I remove the dead or week plants or branches or just the gangly, energy-sucking unfruitful branches. (Hmmm…this sounds very much like time/energy suckers in life, like social media can be.)

 

Removing the bad is easy. But at times it felt cruel or counter-productive to cut off all the good, healthy, growing, sprouting areas! It helps to see now, that removing even the good and living and productive looking areas are all to

1)      Ensure sufficient resources are received

2)      Encourage better quality fruit

3)      Prevent future stress, struggle, disease, and

4)      All while making room for future growth, to ensure continually increasing quality & fruitfulness.

 

It still may hurt when God cuts or trims what appears good from our lives, but now I can see more clearly all the good potential He is making room for. It hleps to know He wants larger, sweeter (though probably fewer) fruit in my life.

 

I look forward to seeing what my blueberry harvest will be like this year.