Pruning a bonsai

Was pruning a bonsai which was given to me for my birthday.

Pruning wasn't an easy thing, I realised. Choosing the withering leaves to snip away is easy, but deciding to prune the leaves which were only browning at the tip was a challenge. I would think "Well, it is still mostly green, why not leave the leaf on?" Next was the challenge of keeping the plant in shape -- it wasn't just about snipping the withering leaves. Rather, if you want to keep the shape of the bonsai, you'll have to snip away even new fresh shoots which are out of place. Ouch, doesn't that hurt? It wasn't even dying leaves but young and new growth, but in order to keep the shape of the bonsai, I will have to do what I must. And then there is the wiring, which requires some skills to be gentle yet firm, to train new branches the way it should go.

In the book "The Man God Uses", Henry and Tom Blackaby wrote about pruning rose bushes.
"After reading and studying all my mind could take about roses, I became distressed. I learnt that I had to show "tough love" to these beautiful plants. My inherited rose bushes had to be chopped up in the fall in order for them to produce a healthy crop of roses the next year. I apologetically snipped here and there, begging the bush to forgive me with each careful cut. When I was through, it looked pathetic and helpless. But the secret was in the healthy roots, not the branches. Sure enough, the next spring, life once again reappeared. Almost effortlessly, dozens of buds began appearing at the end of the lush, leafy green branches. The bush had grown even bigger than it was the year before!" (pages 64-65)

Christ must cut out the things in our lives that hinder growth and prevent us from bearing fruit. Useless branches can sap nutrients from the healthy branches. They can slow or hinder growth. Although painful at the time, it will be well worth the operation in the long run."


If I could feel the little pinch in pruning a bonsai plant, how much more would it have pained our loving God the Father when He has to mold and discipline us to be what He wants us to be?

Jesus talks about The Vine and the Branches in John 15
"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. "