. He Who Holds the Pruning Knife
by J. R. Miller . I am the true vine,
and my Father is the gardener. He prunes every branch that produces
fruit, so that it will produce more fruit. . John 15, 1 and
2 . Our Father is the gardener, We are branches under his care.
He watches over our lives. The painful afflictions which
cut into our very souls, the taking from us of objects that
are dear to us, as when the gardener with his sharp knife removes
luxuriant branches from the vine, are our father's prunings. No
hand but his ever holds the knife. We are sure, then, that there
is never any careless cutting, any unwise or mistaken pruning,
any needless removing of rich branches or growths. We really
need to go no farther than this. A strong, abiding confidence
that all the trials, sorrows, and losses of our lives are parts
of our Father's prunings ought to silence every question, quiet
every fear, and give peace and restful assurance to our hearts
in all their pain. We cannot know the reason for
the painful strokes, but we know that He who holds the pruning
knife is our Father. That is all we need to know.
The other thought in the Lord's parable is scarcely less full
of comfort to a Christian. Jesus says that it is the fruitful
branches which the Father prunes He prunes every branch that produces
fruit, so that it will produce more fruit. Afflictions are not,
then, a mark of God's anger or disapproval. Rather, they are
a mark of His favor. The branches into which He cuts,
from which He trims away the luxuriant growths, are fruit-bearing
already. He does not prune the fruitless
branches. He cuts them off altogether as
useless, as mere cumberers, absorbing life and yielding nothing of
blessing or good. Some Christians have the impression
that their many troubles indicate that God does not love them,
that they cannot be true Christians, or they would not be so chastened.
This teaching of Christ shows how mistaken they are. The much
chastening shows that the Father is pruning His fruitful branch
to make it more fruitful. All whom the Father loves, He
chastens. It is the fruitless branch that
is never pruned. The fruitful branch is pruned,
and pruned, not by one without skill, not by an enemy, but by
the wise Father. Thus we see how we may rejoice,
even in our trials and afflictions. One who was altogether ignorant
of the art and purpose of pruning, who should see a man with a sharp
knife cutting off branch after branch of a luxuriant vine, would
at first suppose that the pruner was ruining the vine. So at the
time it seems, but by and by it appears that the prunings
have made the vine more fruitful. In the season of vintage the
grapes are more luscious, with a richer flavor in them, because
of the cutting away of the superfluous branches. In like manner, if
an angel who had never witnessed anything of human suffering and
who knew nothing of its object, were to see the father causing
pain and affliction to his children, it would seem to him that these
experiences could only be destructive of happiness and blessing. But
if the angel were to follow those chastened lives on to the end,
he would see untold blessing coming out of the chastenings.
The father was but pruning the branches that they might bear
more and better fruit. We should never lose sight of
the divine purpose in all trials to make our lives more fruitful.