Cutting Off Branches

Hubby borrowed this long pole with a very scarey blade at the end of it from his parents a couple days ago. It's used to saw down branches. Yesterday I watched him use the thing. He became hot and sweaty and tired. It was hard work. And the device would have been dangerous in the wrong hands - just imagine what would have happend had I been the one using it! Afterward the yard looked like a hurricane came through - kinda like the time when our squirrels were harvesting timber for goodness knows what!

Of course, this got me to thinking.

In John 15, Jesus talks about branches and vines and fruit and cutting stuff off and throwing stuff in the fire. He talks about remaining in Him, loving Him, bearing fruit, about joy and friendship. I'm going to spend some time in that chapter, to slowly chew on every verse. (Yeah yeah, I know I'm not done with Acts yet my friends - but can you blame me? I'm finding I don't really like Paul. I'm more of a Barnabas type gal myself.)

Anyway, my thought was, as I was watching hubby excert his energy yesterday - when God cuts off our branches, is that work for Him too? Is it painful for him to watch us go through the anguish of having our branches sawn off? When God works on our character, and He decides to allow us to go through pain in order to restore us to our intended dignity, does He bleed and sweat too? At first I replied to myself - "What? Are you crazy? He's God! Everything is easy for Him!" And then I thought some more. The cross wasn't easy for Him. He was beaten, stabbed, humiliated, and bore the heavy load of our depravity upon Himself. He died. For us. So yes, I believe that when God cuts our "unfruitful" branches away from the rest of the tree (which is me, you, and every other believer), in some sense it does pain Him. But He also sees the bigger picture (because He's the artist). He sees us whole and beautiful. So He also cuts away with joy, fully knowing the outcome. And when Jesus died on that tree, on that cross, He knew the joy that was to come. He was resurrected, He is now alive! Oh my God, my Lord is awesome! He has the story, our stories, all written down before any of it has happend. He is in control. Even though we do what we want to, and sometimes we even rebel, in the end He always brings us back to Himself. Sometimes the sawing and cutting is more painful than at other times because some unfruitful branches aren't just unfruitful, they are dangerous to the tree. So He cuts and He saws. And He cries with us, but He also is joyous too.