| The Ministry of Comfort |
Chapter 3 |
Page 5 |
Still another comfort here is revealed in the object of the pruning – “That it may bear more fruit.” The one object of all God’s culture is fruitfulness. The figure of pruning helps us to understand this. When one who knows nothing of such processes sees a man cutting away branch after branch of a tree or vine, it would seem to him that the work is destructive. But those who understand the object of the pruning know that what the gardener is doing will add to the vine’s value and to its ultimate fruitfulness.
Dr. Marvin R. Vincent tells of being in a great hothouse where luscious clusters of grapes were hanging on every side. The owner said, “When my new gardener came he said he would have nothing to do with these vines unless he could cut them clean down to the stalk; and he did, and we had no grapes for two years, but this is the result.” There is rich suggestiveness in this interpretation of the pruning process as we apply it to Christian life. Pruning seems to be destroying the vine. The gardener appears to be cutting it all away. But he looks on into the future and knows that the final outcome will be the enrichment of its life and greater abundance of fruit.
There is another Scripture teaching which many Christians seem to forget in time of trial. It is this that every trouble which comes into the life of a believer enfolds in its dark form some gift from God. There are blessings which it would seem can be given only in pain and earthly loss, and lessons which can be learned only in suffering. There are heavenly songs we can never learn to sing while we are enjoying earth’s ease. We can be trained for gentle ministry only in the school of loss and trial. In our short sightedness we dread the hard things of life and would thrust away the bitter cups. If only we knew it, these unwelcome experiences bring to us rich gifts and benefits. There are blessings we never can have unless we are ready to pay the price of pain. There is no other way to reach them save through suffering.
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