pruning continued

The necessity of bearing fruit as a believer is all over the Bible. So, as a believer, one of the things I think a lot about is whether I actually bear fruit.  I most definitely hope I do, but it's one of those sort of invisible qualities that is unquantifiable a good bit of the time.  I find this similarly in teaching, you hope you are teaching well but you just never know if you are actually getting across to your students.

Well, in my BSF study this morning we came across yet another "fruit-bearing" scripture in John.  This one says (i'm paraphrasing), God is the gardener, Jesus is the vine, and believers are branches off the vine.  It also goes along to talk about how God prunes the branches that bear fruit, so that they can grow more fruit.  As I read this scripture and being a very visual person, an image of God in a gardening apron (like Martha Stewart style), gardening gloves, and pruning shears walking through his grape vine pruning the branches w/ grapes.  Which then conjured images of how I love to prune the dead flowers off my violets and how I this task makes me feel all warm-and-fuzzy towards my plants, so much so that i find myself caressing their leaves and talking to them. 
Which brought my mind back to God, which caused my eyes to well up w/ tears b/c that love i feel for my plants as I prune their flowers is nothing compared the love God feels for me.  And that the only reason he's pruning my life right now is so I can bear more fruit for him; so that I can carry on the work Christ began, supporting other believers and possibly calling more people into this flock; so that those people can know the love of God in same or greater ways than I do.