Spring is here! I love this time of year when the air is cool in the mornings, warmer during the day and cool again in the evenings. My tulips are starting to break through the ground and garden soil prep is underway or at least should have been under way by now
Petunias are one of my favorite annuals and garden flower because they require little effort during the season to maintain even though you have to purchase and plant new ones each year. The care for petunias is pretty simple: direct sun, water every 1-2 days depending on the heat and regular pruning. As long as you have all three you are good to go to achieve beautiful blossoms.
But here’s the thing… if you miss a step you will end up with a dead plant.
One of the first lessons I learned early on is that if you don’t prune the dead stuff, new stuff can’t grow. The dead stuff chokes out the healthy flowers and keeps new ones from blooming. The tricky thing with petunias too is that the dead stuff doesn’t appear on top where it would be obvious to look. Instead, you have to pull back the vines and look underneath to find and remove the junk. If this attention is given to your flowers regularly they will bloom nicely throughout the season. You can prune them back and new growth will appear with regular sunshine and watering.
Talk about a spiritual metaphor! So it is in our spiritual lives if we get regular Son exposure, drink from The Living Water and allow God to prune us, then we are able to flourish as His daughters. Sometimes what needs to be pruned in our hearts or lives may not always be so obvious to us. Perhaps God is out to mature me in my anger or frustration. Perhaps He wants to content my lusting heart. Maybe God is out to sanctify my motives in why I serve others. When we neglect what nourishes and helps us grow, that which is dead and needs to be pruned will choke us. Growth will be stifled and we won’t grow into what God intends.
So, as you work in your garden or perhaps enjoy the labor of another’s garden, may you be reminded of God’s pruning love as you seek to flourish in Him.
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