Pruning Time
Saturday Stories Day…
Pruning is a necessary work toward developing fruit-bearing plants that are productive. I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, in a previous Saturday Story, that I had been doing some study on how to maintain and develop the peach trees I planted last spring. The video produced by the young man who was working in his family peach orchard focused primarily on pruning methods. I was surprised by what I learned.
He was doing this pruning in January. The trees were leafless and dormant. It did make it easier to see what he was doing, but the drastic number of branches he was cutting off was mildly shocking. He made a good point about his reasoning though.
What he explained was that their goal was to harvest the largest and best-tasting peaches possible, even if that meant the total number of peaches harvested would be less. Pruning branches, that otherwise would have produced some fruit, meant that the energy and nutrients the tree was able to provide would go to a smaller number of peaches, making them larger and better tasting.
He also pointed out that when you have an overabundance of branches, many of the lower and middle branches aren’t getting the sun that they need to be healthy and productive. So, by keeping the branches spaced out it allows them to get better sunlight. It also allows for good airflow between them, which was necessary for good health and the ability of the tree to fight off disease.
There is something to learn here. If we try to do too much, we spread our energy and resources out too much and produce small and anemic fruit. If we do fewer things, we put more of what we have in those things and the fruit we can produce will be greater and better than it would be otherwise. So, it might be wise to evaluate things once in a while and see if you are trying to do too much. Maybe some pruning is necessary to produce better results.
The other thing I would like to point out is the metaphor that is there for us to grab. The more Son Light shining on us, and the more Wind blowing across our lives, the healthier and more productive we can be. We must make room in our lives for the Son and the Spirit. As Jesus said, “Without Me, you can do nothing.”
