You Killed My Tree!

 

In 1987 a church member at Calvary had a widow friend who needed some tree work done.  Mrs. Goforth (I can use her name since she has passed away long ago) owned her home but didn’t have much money for extras such as tree removal.  So, Brother Ron and I agreed to help her in trimming a tree in the front yard.  She agreed to pay us $75 to remove dead limbs and to haul them off to the dump.  Brother Ron and I worked all day climbing up ladders and cutting huge limbs.  We cut up the downed limbs into manageable size and made several trips to the dump.  At the end of the day, we knocked on Mrs. Goforth’s door to collect our money.  She looked at her tree and declared, “You killed my tree!”  I explained that we cut all of the dead limbs and that the tree would grow back.  She said, “You killed my tree!”  Ron began to explain that the tree wasn’t dead, but just looked that way when she said a third time, “You killed my tree.”  We apologized and left never collecting any money.  When a tree is pruned, it looks like it is killed, but it isn’t.  It just needs time to grow back.  Hey, that’s the way it is with us Christians.  God sends difficulties and suffering into our lives to make us better.  In a way, God prunes and cuts us back to make us better.  Jesus said in John 15:1&2, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.”  God’s pruning may be brutal, but it is loving and purposeful.  God wants to make us stronger and better so that we can glorify Him by bearing more fruit.  Jesus goes on to say in verse 5, “I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.”  Just like Mrs. Goforth’s tree, we need to be cut back so that we can grow back stronger and better for God.  Don’t resist God’s purging.  He is the Master Gardener.  Run to Him; He loves you!