Good Apples

My friend (one of my "single digits") and I are planning on getting our wigs busted (aka a hair cut). I'll have to admit that I'll miss my long hair, but Jeffrey is constantly grabbing and pulling at it anyway. I don't think I'll really mourn the loss, but it will be a change that will take some getting used to.

My dome will be pruned. Just as my life is being pruned.

When I was living in Billings, Montana, I attended Faith Chapel. There was a pastor (Rich Trees) who had served there for many years, and who had been led to leave that church to pastor a super tiny church in Absarokee where he grew up... Kind of a coming home for him, but a loss for our church at the time. I remember as he was getting up to deliver his last sermon to the congregation, everyone spontaneously stood in uproarious applause. He was humbled... But then again he was a humble man. He spoke about pruning. He used his family's apple trees as an illustration. In order to bear good fruit, a tree must be pruned. If it is left to grow on its own, its limbs become overgrown, and in turn, the fruit becomes small, if it's even able to bear fruit at all. He said that if we were the tree, being pruned would probably hurt, but in the end it was for our benefit. He showed us a "good apple" and a "bad apple". The difference was obvious. One was large and lucious. The other was small, off-colored and riddled with dark spots. He paused to gain his composure and said, "You are good apples."

That stuck with me for some reason. I have contemplated often on being pruned. We're pruned through our circumstances, through the choices we make, through the submission to our Lord, particularly when He leads us outside of our comfort zone or gives us answers we don't want to hear.

I'm grateful for being pruned. It hurts. It sucks. But in the end, the fruit is large and lucious.

Thank you, Jesus, for teaching me to submit to Your authority and for helping me to produce good apples.