Pruning

The sunshine and 60 degree temperatures beckoned to me yesterday. So I spent time in the yard that's greened-up from our two weeks of rain. The sucker branches that Louis & I pruned from our trees the day before the rain started in earnest, were still surrounding each tree trunk in pick-up-sticks fashion. We hope for bigger and better fruit late summer and fall as a result of the pruning done in early spring. The sun warmed my back as I gathered each armload of deadwood to carry to our burn pile. It felt so good to be outside again and recovering from my bout with an upper respiratory infection that came with the spring rain. My thoughts were on the pruning that God has been doing in my life. I was praying that His pruning would lead to my personal growth and fruit for His Kingdom, when suddenly one of the sticks I was bending over jabbed up one nostril! I nearly blacked out from the unexpected pain and held my nose...sure I had started a nosebleed. The reality of my day to day life is often like that unanticipated sharp poke from the stick. Sometimes I walk away bleeding, sometimes I'm just brought up with a start. Yes, I haven't yet slipped into olam haba - that world to come just beyond the vanishing point at my horizons. I'm still living in a fallen world. I need to submit to each experience my Master sends with "for this I have Yeshua/Jesus!"