I live in a land where plants grow ample and lush, the green abutting polished skyscrapers and metal-roofed slums.
Even after years of my growing plant collection, I am still weary to brave the sharp clippers toward my flowery bushes. So when my gardener cut a drooping succulent down to its naked limbs, I thought—shoot, we’ve surely killed off its beauty.
But then I took a short three-week trip Stateside for my brother's wedding. When I returned and my eyes could finally see through my jet-lagged haze, I noticed a new plant on my porch. Who brought this here? It's simple and small, but so beautiful.
Then I realized—that's not a new plant. That's the very one we pruned back just six weeks ago. New sprigs of lime leaves were now budding from the previously barren branches. I had not even recognized it with all its new growth.
My heart immediately recalled moments where I felt I had been stripped bare. Our first night living in a foreign city after leaving everyone and everything we knew. Doctors and nurses speaking in accents as they talked me through my contractions at just 26 weeks. Constant needs to which I didn’t have the answer.
Jesus conveys the necessity of pruning when he uses the imagery of a vine: "I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful" (John 15:1-2).
I thought back to those bare seasons in my life where my self reliance, my impatience, my desire for comfort and easy answers were all pruned back. And before I knew it, I looked back and barely recognized the girl I was before. Faith had grown from my stripped branches.
True growth in our walk with Jesus is not easy. Sometimes he does it through pruning out our selfish tendencies, allowing us to walk through hardships, or causing us to wait on his timing. But we can be assured the pruning is being done by and alongside a Good Father who knows what is truly best to bear more fruit within us. And just when we have all but given up, we begin to see little shoots sprouting from the tattered edges of our souls.
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Father, may you help us not to fear the times and seasons of your pruning. May we rest in your gentle and loving embrace, even as we face hardships and fight against our own sin. Remind us that you are the one producing good fruit within us as we abide in you, even when we can’t see it.
What I’m reading…
Upon Waking by Jackie Hill Perry
This is a 60-day devotional by one of my favorite teachers, Jackie Hill Perry! I’m only a week in to it so far, but I love how she writes everything with the desire to point us back to studying Scripture and wanting more of Christ. Many devotionals honestly fall short for me, but this one is so solid.
(Also, psssst, I major fan-girled this Christmas break when my family and I ran into Jackie and Preston Perry at a restaurant near my brother and SIL’s house outside of Atlanta! Peep the picture!)
Being Elisabeth Elliot by Ellen Vaughn
I started a book club with a couple of friends where we simply read through a book and then discuss our takeaways and what the Lord was teaching our hearts as we read. This is the sequel to Becoming Elisabeth Elliot. I have honestly not read a ton by Elisabeth Elliot because a lot of her opinions were pretty staunch in areas of beliefs that I didn’t feel were top-tier doctrines or matters that needed to be so black and white, and for years it was hard for me to read such seemingly legalistic works (although she’s incredible and an amazing writer/lover of Jesus!).
BUT these two authorized biographies were absolutely incredible. I loved how Ellen Vaughn brought the humanity back to this heroic character everyone had revered for so long and pointed to, like Elisabeth would have wanted, Christ alone.
Persuasion by Jane Austen
Like I’ve said before, my brain needs a break in between the theology books, so I throw in fun ones like this (or all the WWII fiction novels)! I enjoyed watching the movie after reading this and finding the differences between the two.
What are you reading? I would love to hear in the comments, and to add some “Want to reads” to my Goodreads list for the year (my yearly reading goal lately has been based on my age… which somehow keeps going up)!
What I’m loving…
Two of our dogs had PUPPIES while we were in the States, and we came back to them being the perfect age at four weeks old (sturdy enough to be toted around by our almost four year old, but still not at the full on, bite-and-eat everything-they-see puppy stage). We are simply in love and don’t even care we have a mini farm going on over here.
This is our favorite chapstick by a long shot. We don’t have access to it here in Kenya, and we’ve been out for a few months now. Let’s just say we were pretty pumped to get our Burt’s Bees pomegranate this Christmas.
I’m always on the lookout for a good planner, and this year I wanted one with a Christian bent. I saw Phylicia Masonheimer post about the Christian Planner, so I brought one back with me and am loving it so far! I love that it has ample space for goals, note-taking, gratitude, etc.
I LOVE these white Adidas sneakers I got for Christmas. Never mind the fact I’m walking around dusty orange East Africa AND my friends told me they’re too fresh to wear around the streets because someone will literally come take them off my feet and leave me in my socks (I also don’t think they were kidding. Africa, man haha).