By Adelle Bowman
I am an aspiring gardener. As a young woman living in my own home for the first time, I decided that this summer I would plant my very own garden. I bought the seeds, prepared the soil, and planted the seedlings. Before long, I watched, in particular, my little jalapeño pepper plants begin to grow.
Honestly, I was amazed. How could something so tiny grow into a plant that would eventually produce food to help sustain my family…or at the very least, make a good salsa.
I planted several varieties of peppers and carefully watched each stage of growth. First came the roots, then the leaves, and finally, one of my plants produced its very first bloom. A tiny flower that signaled a pepper would soon grow in its place. I was thrilled!
Being the very amateur gardener that I am, I immediately did what any beginner would do: I Googled how to get the biggest harvest possible. To my horror, experienced gardeners recommended something that made absolutely no sense to me. They said I should pinch off the very first blooms and not allow the plant to produce fruit yet.
What?!
Why would I remove the very thing I had been waiting for? Why delay the fruit?
The more I read, the more I began to understand. In young pepper plants, pinching off the early blooms forces the plant to focus on strengthening its roots instead of producing fruit too soon. The roots grow deeper into the soil, gather more nutrients, and establish a stronger foundation. As a result, the plant becomes better equipped to withstand storms, pests, and difficult conditions, and eventually, it produces far more fruit than it would have otherwise.
Wow!!!!
Isn’t that so much like the way God, the Master Gardener, cares for us?
As people living in a fallen world, we face hardships, disappointments, waiting seasons, and struggles. Yet as Christians, we do not walk through those seasons alone. We have the gift of the Holy Spirit living within us, guiding us and sustaining us.
But what about the seasons when God feels distant? When prayers seem to hit the ceiling? When life gets hard, and it feels like there is no fruit to be found? Maybe your faith feels stagnant. Maybe the joy is gone. Maybe you wonder if God has abandoned you in your suffering.
If you have ever felt that way, you are not alone, my friend.
May I encourage you with this truth: sometimes God allows hardships to come because He is strengthening the roots.
Sometimes the bloom is pinched off not to harm the plant, but to prepare it for greater fruitfulness later.
Sometimes God lovingly allows uncomfortable seasons to drive us deeper into dependence on Him – to teach us to abide, remain, endure, and cling tightly to Christ.
In John 15, Jesus says:
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener… every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful… Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine… 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.”
Just like my little jalapeño plant, the Lord sometimes prunes us. He lovingly cuts away sin, self-reliance, distraction, pride, and misplaced dependence. He allows seasons that feel uncomfortable and confusing so that our roots will grow deep in Him.
And what is the purpose of that pruning?
Fruitfulness.
Not punishment. Not abandonment. Fruitfulness.
The Father, the perfect Gardener, knows exactly what He is doing. He sees what we cannot see. While we mourn the loss of the bloom, He is strengthening the roots. While we worry that nothing is growing, He is preparing us to bear even greater fruit in due season.
Praise the Lord for a Gardener who loves us enough to prune us and encourages us to grow in Christ-likeness, and bloom more than we ever thought was possible!
