Life on Purpose

Don’t Fear the Pruning

Words by Sarah Kroger

I am the neglected tomato plant that is still producing. I have hidden myself from the gardener, not wanting him to prune the parts of me that I’m attached to. After all, those parts are producing. I understand that without them, I could focus more of my energy in one direction and not feel so pulled apart. Still, I doubt. What if I CAN do it all? What if I CAN make something of this part that he wants to prune away? I am the volunteer plant that grows in the most difficult places without the benefit of cultivated soil or the hand of the gardener securing me to the trellis for support. I’m missing his hand that focuses my growth in the most fruitful direction. I am strong and producing, but in my independence, I am not as prosperous as I could be. I take pride in my own strength and forget that I’m not the one who ultimately makes things grow.

God is the gardener. He’s the one who tends, prunes, and harvests when the fruit is ripe. Before any of that, He’s the one who sets the seed to sprout and knows the perfect time and place to plant. However, just like the scattered seed that lands on rocky ground or among the weeds, sometimes we don’t land in the perfect spot and grow as a “volunteer.”

Have you ever had those? Tiny plants with a strong will to live. One year I even found tomato plants squeezing out the side of the garden boxes between boards. Those volunteers are often the strongest (read: most stubborn) little plants and, frankly, if I can transplant them, I’ll have the most coveted seeds to save because they made it through the winter still able to grow!

That volunteer tomato was determined to reach the sun and made its presence known in the garden. However, because it didn’t have the support of a trellis, over time, the weight of the branches broke the stalk and large portions of it died. It worked so hard to find the light that it didn’t have much energy to put on fruit, therefore, it didn't produce much.

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, as I also 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 you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are 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 done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. John 15:1-8

This is the central Scripture for my Theology of the Homestead talks. God teaches us so much about His truths through the ordinary moments of our daily lives. I’ve learned more about Him through baking, gardening, and parenting than just about anywhere else.

Gardeners know that pruning isn’t the process of just cutting off what’s dead and diseased. Yes, you do those things, but true pruning is the act of removing anything that takes away from optimal growth and production of fruit. If you leave all the branches growing wild, things will grow. There will be fruit. That little tomato plant growing between the slats of my raised bed garden came because I didn’t trellis my tomatoes the summer before. Life happened, and they grew to a bushy mess before I knew it. Because of that, I couldn’t see, let alone harvest, the fruit. Many tomatoes were small and misshapen under twisting stems, and they dropped to the ground to rot. The growth happened, but it was far from optimal. It was hard to even see what was there. I definitely didn’t get the best from my garden that year.

When the gardener gets involved in pruning and takes away some perfectly healthy growth, he can direct the plant’s energy to grow in a specific direction. He can focus all that growth into the most profitable fruit-producing outcome. He takes away every branch that does not bear fruit, and every one that does, he prunes so that it bears more fruit. Look carefully at that. God looks at all parts of us that bear fruit and still removes some so that we can bear more fruit!

When we present ourselves to God for pruning, we tend to show the parts that are dead or diseased—the parts we know we need to change. Our tendency is to look at ourselves and say Is this part good or bad? However, perhaps God isn’t calling you to just eliminate the bad, but to actually prune.

There could be something in your life that is a neutral thing, or even a good thing, but it isn’t in line with God’s plan for your greatest good. It’s something that is drawing your focus away from where God is calling you. It could be pulling you away from the next phase of the purpose for which you were loved into existence. When God breathed a word that had never been spoken before and knit you together in your mother’s womb, it wasn’t so you could hold tightly to the things that are keeping you from the abundant life promised to you. Often, when He turns us around to cut the other side, the one we didn’t present to Him, we shy away.

In the early spring, we are super excited to see even the tiniest baby sprout poking out of the soil. We should be excited about that, and we do everything we can to nurture, encourage, and protect those sprouts. We should have gratitude at every step, but to be honest, if that’s all the more growth you had in August, you wouldn’t consider it a successful tomato growing season. I can’t make tomato focaccia or tomato basil sourdough with just seedlings!

I want to make a slight shift in the metaphor here. Up to this point, I’ve been talking about us as the plant and the value of pruning for our optimal growth toward producing fruit. Now, start thinking of yourself as the tomato, the fruit. The fruit is the last thing to grow. It’s the crown jewel of the plant. Everything the plant does—every bit of energy it puts out—is for the production of good fruit. The plant makes the roots, stems, leaves, and flowers before it even has the beginnings of a tiny fruit. There are times when you’re doing an incredible amount of growing and even suffering, and it doesn’t seem to be producing anything of value. Be patient with yourself when growth doesn’t seem to be going very quickly. Success is according to His timing, not what makes sense to us at the moment. We know that the Gardener’s heavy pruning produces the best fruit; fruit that often doesn't come until the end of a long season of growing and pruning, and it’s the most treasured part!

Remember that God knows when to plant and when to harvest. He knows what to prune and what to let grow. He knows when to harvest the tomatoes, whether it’s to protect them from bugs or from the coming frost. He knows how to get the most out of the growing plant. You can trust His timing.

When a tomato blushes (just begins to change colors from green to red), it begins to produce lycopene, a natural chemical in the plant that’s responsible for homegrown tomatoes having greater flavor than store-bought tomatoes. The ones from the store are picked green and ripened either naturally or artificially, but without the presence of lycopene. Jess Sowards says that store-bought tomatoes taste like disappointment. Of course some of that is because of the wide variety of tomatoes we can grow in our home gardens compared to what we can find at the store, but a large contributor to the flavor has to do with when and how it’s harvested.

I’ve learned to pick my tomatoes when they blush—when they’re no longer solid green and about 10% of the surface is beginning to show hints of color. Those tomatoes ripen in the kitchen within a few days and have the rich color and full flavor that we want from homegrown tomatoes.

But why not just leave them outside to fully ripen on the vine? The longer they’re on the vine, the more delicious they become for other critters too. Even a sudden, hard rain on your mature tomato plants can cause the fruit to split. There’s nothing worse than a beautiful tomato that has a giant gash in the back side where the bugs have moved in. When I pick them as soon as they blush, I can avoid all those things and still get the flavor.

However, if I was the tomato, I would be thinking I’m not ready! I need more time! Look at me—if you would just wait, I could show you how amazing I could become! God, the gardener, knows “danger” (bugs, frost, rain) is coming. He knows that picking the tomato will protect it from harm while it finishes ripening.

When we are “being picked” before we are ready, we can trust the Gardener and hear him tell usI will protect you while you finish developing. Even when we don’t understand His timing or process, you can remember you are the crown jewel of creation. You are what the Gardener prunes for and gets so excited to see growing and ripening until you’re perfectly complete and ready for harvest.

Remember my little volunteer that could? The fruit from that plant still came regardless of the location in which it grew and the neglect it had in terms of trellising and pruning. We can’t mess up God’s plans by our inconsistent participation in His holy will. We aren’t that powerful. We can, however, compromise our own holiness by hiding away from the pruning shears, thinking we know better where to put our focus. We will still bear fruit, but it won't be the size or number it could have been had we submitted to the will of the Father.

Submit to the Gardener. Trust His knowledge and vision. Don’t fear the pruning.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.
Proverbs 3:5-6